Iran denies any meeting with U.S. next week, Foreign Minister says
Iran currently has no plan to meet with the United States, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday (June 26, 2025) in an interview on state TV, contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump's statement that Washington planned to have talks with Iran next week.
The Iranian Foreign Minister said Tehran was assessing whether talks with the U.S. were in its interest, following five previous rounds of negotiations that were cut short by Israel and the U.S. attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.
The U.S. and Israel said the strikes were meant to curb Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons, while Iran says its nuclear programme is solely geared toward civilian use.
Mr. Araqchi said the damages to nuclear sites 'were not little' and that relevant authorities were figuring out the new realities of Iran's nuclear programme, which he said would inform Iran's future diplomatic stance.

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Time of India
4 minutes ago
- Time of India
Iran-Israel conflict: Jaishankar speaks to Iranian counterpart; thanks him for facilitating evacuation of Indians
NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday spoke to his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghci and thanked him for facilitating safe evacuation of Indian nationals during the conflict between Israel and the Shiite state. In a social media post on X, Jaishankar said that Araghchi shared perspective and thinking about the heightened tensions between Iran and Israel. "Spoke to FM Araghchi of Iran this afternoon. Appreciate his sharing Iran's perspective and thinking in the current complex situation," Jaishankar said. "Thanked him for facilitating the safe evacuation of Indian nationals," he added. Earlier on Thursday, ministry of external affairs said that India evacuated more than 4,400 Indian nationals from Iran and Israel so far in 19 special flights under Operation Sindhu launched on June 18 to bring home its citizens amid the ongoing conflict between the two countries "A fresh batch of 173 Indians evacuated from Iran reached Delhi late Thursday night in a flight from Armenian capital Yerevan", MEA said in a post on X. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, in response to queries on Operation Sindhu, said New Delhi was assessing the situation on the ground and a decision on the future course of action would be taken based on it. Over 3,400 Indian nationals have been evacuated so far in 14 flights from Iran since the start of Operation Sindhu, according to data shared by him during the briefing. Jaiswal later shared updated evacuee figures in the post on X after the arrival of the flight from Yeravan. "A special evacuation flight from Yerevan, Armenia landed in New Delhi at 22:30 hrs on 26th June, bringing home 173 Indian nationals from Iran," he wrote. "As part of #OperationSindhu, a total of 4415 Indian nationals (3597 from Iran and 818 from Israel) have been evacuated so far using 19 special evacuation flights including 3 IAF aircraft. 14 OCI card-holders, 9 Nepali nationals, 4 Sri Lankan nationals and 1 Iranian spouse of an Indian national were also evacuated from Iran," he added. Israel and Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at each other's cities and military and strategic facilities since the hostilities began more than a week ago. The tensions escalated significantly following the US bombing of three major Iranian nuclear sites on the morning of June 22. India has evacuated its nationals on chartered flights operated from the Iranian city of Mashhad, the Armenian capital of Yerevan and the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat since June 18. Iran lifted airspace restrictions on June 20 to facilitate three chartered flights from Mashhad. The first flight landed in New Delhi late on June 20 with 290 Indians, and the second one landed in the national capital on June 21 afternoon with 310 Indians. Another flight arrived from the Armenian capital city of Yerevan on June 19 and a special evacuation flight from Ashgabat landed in New Delhi early on June 21. India on June 23 had evacuated 290 Indian nationals and a Sri Lankan citizen from Iran following the US bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites.


Time of India
10 minutes ago
- Time of India
Iran: Is the cost of closing the Strait of Hormuz too high?
AP image For a few days, the world held its breath. It seems the conflict between Israel, the US and Iran is not going to escalate any further, at least for now. Iran opted to save face by launching an attack on a US military base in Qatar, which the stock market interpreted as a de-escalatory gesture. This retaliatory strike by Tehran was "loud enough for headlines, quiet enough not to shake the oil market's foundations," Stephen Innes of SPI asset management commented to Reuters. Immediately after the strike on Monday evening, the oil price fell again sharply. And yet Iran holds a powerful trump card. It could do immense damage to the global economy by blockading the Strait of Hormuz. But would this really be to its advantage — or would it be more of an own goal? Why oil exports are so important for Tehran The US energy information administration (EIA) says that "Iran's economy is relatively diversified compared with many other Middle Eastern countries." However, the goods produced by the country's industry are primarily sold on the domestic market. The export of oil and petroleum products is therefore an important source of income for the government. These constitute more than 17 percent of the country's total exports, with natural gas at 12 percent. According to the EIA, Iran was the fourth-largest producer of crude oil among the OPEC countries in 2023, and in 2022 it was the world's third-largest producer of dry gas (natural gas that is at least 85 percent methane, containing only negligible quantities of condensable gases such as hydrogen). by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trending in in 2025: Local network access control [Click Here] Esseps Learn More Undo Iran exports oil, despite sanctions Although it has been subject to sanctions for many years, this has not prevented the Iranian regime from exporting oil. China in particular has benefited: In 2023, it took almost 90 percent of the oil exported by Iran. In March 2024, the Financial Times quoted Javad Owji, Iran's minister of petroleum at the time, saying that Iran's oil exports "generated more than 35 billion dollars" in 2023. According to the World Bank, between April and December 2023 the oil sector represented more than 8 percent of Iran's GDP. And based on estimates from the data analysis company Vortexa, it is believed to have exported even more the following year. China: an important trade partner Iran would therefore damage itself if it blocked the Strait of Hormuz. Not only would its own oil revenue be affected, it would also upset its trading partner China, which profits from buying the oil at low cost. The London-based TV station Iran International estimates that Tehran sells its oil at a 20 percent discount on the world market price, because its buyers risk getting into trouble on account of the US sanctions. The broadcaster explained that Chinese refineries are the biggest buyers of Iran's illegal consignments of oil. Intermediaries mix it with deliveries from other countries, and the oil is then declared in China as having been imported from Singapore or other countries of origin. According to Rystad Energy, an independent energy research company based in Norway, China imports a total of almost 11 million barrels of crude oil per day, around 10 percent of which comes from Iran. Blockade would affect neighbouring countries A blockade would also have caused trouble for Iran's neighbours. Kuwait, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates also transport their oil through the passage. In a post on LinkedIn, the economist Justin Alexander, a Gulf region analyst, commented that if Tehran were to close the strait, this would "undermine remaining alliances" it still has with countries in the region. Whether Iran could actually maintain a blockade is also doubtful. Homayoun Falakshahi from the analytics firm Kpler told German TV that he believed a blockade would provoke a swift and forceful military response from both the US and European countries, and that Iran would only have been able to close the strait for a day or two. Iran's struggling economy Furthermore, if Iran's economic situation were to deteriorate even further, it would go down very badly with the Iranian people. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, professor of economics at Virginia Tech in the US, told DW that the standard of living in Iran had already dropped to the level of 20 years ago as a result of sanctions. These apply not only to the oil industry, but also to international payment transactions with Iran, which drives up inflation. This has been rising steeply since the beginning of the year, to more than 38.7 percent in May 2025 compared with May 2024. The combination of sanctions and the low exchange rate is making daily life ever more expensive for people in Iran.


NDTV
13 minutes ago
- NDTV
2 Main Routes, Shafts: How US Used Its Bunker-Buster Bombs On Iran's Nuclear Sites
Washington: The deep penetrating bombs that the US dropped into two Iranian nuclear facilities were designed specifically for those sites and were the result of more than 15 years of intelligence and weapons design work, the Pentagon's top leaders said Thursday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a press briefing that they are confident the weapons struck exactly as planned. Caine, the nation's top military officer, offered new details about the work that went into building the "bunker-buster" bombs and how the U.S. used them to burrow into the Iranian sites. He sought to show the level of destruction but did not directly address President Donald Trump's assertion that Tehran's nuclear program has been "obliterated." A classified briefing that pushed US work on bunker busters The bombs, called the GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator, have their roots in a decades-old classified briefing "of what looked like a major construction project in the mountains of Iran," Caine said. That turned out to be the Fordo fuel enrichment plant, with construction believed to have started around 2006. It became operational in 2009, the same year Tehran publicly acknowledged its existence. The classified briefing was shown in 2009 to a Defense Threat Reduction Agency officer, who with a colleague "lived and breathed" Fordo for the next 15 years, studying the geology, construction dig, the earth moved and "every piece of equipment going in and every piece of equipment going out," Caine said. What they concluded: The U.S. didn't have a bomb that could destroy those sites. So the Pentagon got to work, Caine said. "We had so many Ph.D.s working on the mock program - doing modelling and simulation - that we were quietly and in a secret way the biggest users of supercomputer hours within the United States of America," he said. How the bunker busters are designed The 30,000-pound bomb is comprised of steel, explosive and a fuse programmed to a specific detonation time. The longer the fuse, the deeper the weapon will penetrate before exploding. Over the years, the military tested and retested it hundreds of times on mock facilities, Caine said. Crews fine-tuned the bombs to detonate in the mock enrichment rooms, delaying detonation until they had reached a position to send a pressure blast through open tunnels to destroy equipment underground. How the US said it bombed an Iranian underground nuclear facility Fordo had two main ventilation routes into the underground facility - and officials carefully eyed these entry points as a way to target the site. Each route had three shafts - a main shaft and a smaller shaft on either side, which looked almost like a pitchfork in graphics provided by the Pentagon. In the days preceding the US attack, Iran placed large concrete slabs on top of both ventilation routes to try to protect them, Caine said. In response, the US crafted an attack plan where six bunker-buster bombs would be used against each ventilation route, using the main shaft as a way down into the enrichment facility. Seven B-2 stealth bombers were used, carrying two of the massive munitions apiece. The first bomb was used to eliminate the concrete slab, Caine said. The next four bombs were dropped down the main shaft and into the complex at a speed of more than 1,000 feet per second before exploding, he said. A sixth bomb was dropped as a backup, in case anything went wrong. In addition to the 12 bombs dropped on Fordo, with six on each ventilation route, two more hit Iran's main Natanz facility, Caine said. Each crew was able to confirm detonation as they saw the bombs drop from the aircraft in front of them: "We know that the trailing jets saw the first weapons function," Caine said. The pilots reported back that it was the brightest explosion they had ever seen - that it looked like daylight, he said. Questions remain about the whereabouts of Iran's highly enriched uranium Caine said the munitions were built, tested and loaded properly, guided to their intended targets and then exploded as designed. "Iran's nuclear facilities have been destroyed," Hegseth said. However, questions remained as to whether the highly enriched uranium that Iran would need to develop a nuclear weapon was at the site at the time. Asked repeatedly, Hegseth did not say if the uranium had been destroyed or moved. "I'm not aware of any intelligence that I've reviewed that says things were not where they were supposed to be - moved or otherwise," Hegseth said.