Israel will soon be ‘uprooted,’ Khamenei aide says

Iran has demanded that the US halt further military strikes before diplomatic talks can restart, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi told the BBC on Sunday.

“Right now, we are seeking an answer to this question: Are we going to see a repetition of an act of aggression while we are engaging in dialogue?” he said.

The Trump administration is pursuing negotiations through intermediaries but must clarify its position on military attacks during talks, Takht-Ravanchi said.

When asked whether Iran’s uranium enrichment raised suspicions among other countries, he responded: “To say you should have zero enrichment, and if you do not agree, we will bomb you—that is the law of the jungle.”

US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff earlier said several channels of talks with Iran exist and that negotiations would happen soon.

Takht-Ravanchi replied that no dates have been set yet. “No date has been set for talks, and the Israel-Iran ceasefire remains fragile,” he added.

US President Donald Trump had previously set a 60-day deadline for Iran to reach an agreement. However, on day 61, Israel launched military strikes against three major nuclear sites in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow.

Following the Israeli campaign, Iran canceled planned talks with the US scheduled in Oman.

A member of Iran’s National Security Committee has accused the United States and Israel of establishing intelligence networks and cultivating infiltrators inside Iran over the past decade.

“The United States and Israel have established and nurtured intelligence networks and infiltrating elements inside Iran during nearly the past ten years,” said MP Abolfazl Zohrevand.

He also warned that the ceasefire with Israel could collapse at any moment.

The CIA director has told US lawmakers that American military strikes delivered a major blow to Iran’s nuclear program by destroying its only metal conversion facility, the Associated Press reported Sunday, citing a US official familiar with the classified briefing.

John Ratcliffe made the assessment during a closed-door hearing with members of Congress last week, calling the attack a “monumental setback” for Tehran’s nuclear capabilities that could take years to recover from, according to the unnamed official.

The revelation comes amid continued scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers over the scope and impact of the strikes carried out before last Tuesday’s ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

US intelligence believes the majority of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is now buried beneath the rubble of the Isfahan and Fordow sites—two of the three key nuclear facilities hit in the strikes, Ratcliffe told lawmakers.

Iran's foreign minister has called for an emergency session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to condemn Israel's military campaign targeting what he called industrial chemical facilities in Iran.

"The Islamic Republic has called for an emergency session of the Executive Council of the OPCW to examine and condemn the inhuman attacks on the country's infrastructure, including industrial chemical facilities," said Abbas Araghchi in a statement on Sunday.

"Iran, as the largest victim of chemical weapons in modern history, is a strong advocate for a world free of weapons of mass destruction and the initiator of a Middle East free of nuclear weapons," Araghchi added.

"The country has always been at the forefront of the fight against these weapons," he said.

The statement was published on the 38th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's chemical attack against Sardasht in western Iran, which, according to OPCW documentation, killed over 100 people in a large-scale mustard gas attack.

A pundit on Iran's state-run TV said on Sunday that the current ceasefire is merely a brief period for Israel and the US to regroup, and they will resume their attacks on Iran soon.

"The available evidence indicates that Israel, with US support, will resume its surprise and destructive military operations against Iran within a week at most," said Ebrahim Mottaqi, head of the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Tehran, in a televised interview.

“Israel and the United States view the ceasefire as a means of regrouping and optimizing their own military capabilities,” he said.

Mottaqi called on Iranian officials to not take the ceasefire seriously, adding, "Iranian officials would be the targets of such an attack."