
Iran calls US nuclear talks ‘meaningless' after Israel's largest-ever attack, undecided on participation
CAIRO, June 14 — Iran said the dialogue with the US over Tehran's nuclear programme is 'meaningless' after Israel's biggest-ever military strike against its longstanding enemy, but said it is yet to decide on whether to attend planned talks tomorrow.
'The other side (the US) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless. You cannot claim to negotiate and at the same time divide work by allowing the Zionist regime (Israel) to target Iran's territory,' state media today quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying.
'It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard,' Baghaei was quoted as saying.
He said Israel 'succeeded in influencing' the diplomatic process and the Israeli attack would not have happened without Washington's permission, accusing Washington of supporting the attack.
Iran earlier accused the US of being complicit in Israel's attacks, but Washington denied the allegation and told Tehran at the United Nations Security Council that it would be 'wise' to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
The sixth round of US-Iran nuclear talks was set to be held on Sunday in Muscat, but it was unclear whether it would go ahead after the Israeli strikes.
Iran denies that its uranium enrichment programme is for anything other than civilian purposes, rejecting Israeli allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump told Reuters that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming but they still saw room for an accord. — Reuters

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Egypt postpones Grand Egyptian Museum inauguration amid Israel-Iran tensions
CAIRO, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has postponed the long-anticipated grand opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) due to the escalating military confrontation between Israel and Iran, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced on Saturday. Speaking during a press conference while touring the northern Beheira province, Madbouly said the current regional climate was not conducive to hosting a major international event. The museum's opening, originally scheduled for July 3, will now be delayed until the fourth quarter of the year. "The regional tension may persist for weeks," Madbouly said. "We found that the appropriate course of action is to postpone this major event, so that it can have the proper global momentum and take place in a suitable atmosphere." He added that a new date for the opening will be announced based on future regional developments. Madbouly also issued a stark warning about the broader implications of the Israel-Iran conflict, noting the growing risk of a wider confrontation across the Middle East. Located near the iconic Giza pyramids and spanning nearly 500,000 square meters, the GEM is billed as the world's largest archaeological museum dedicated to a single civilization. It will house approximately 57,000 artifacts, according to Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.


The Star
6 hours ago
- The Star
Trump reports more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf, licensing fees
(Reuters) -Donald Trump reported more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf clubs, licensing and other ventures in a public financial disclosure report released on Friday that provided a glimpse of the vast business holdings of America's billionaire president. The annual financial disclosure form, which appeared to cover the 2024 calendar year, shows the president's push into crypto added substantially to his wealth but he also reported large fees from developments and revenues from his other businesses. Overall, the president reported assets worth at least $1.6 billion, a Reuters calculation shows. While Trump has said he has put his businesses into a trust managed by his children, the disclosures show how income from those sources still ultimately accrue to the president - something that has opened him to accusations of conflicts of interest. Some of his businesses in areas such as crypto, for example, benefit from U.S. policy shifts under him and have become a source of criticism. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The financial disclosure was signed on June 13 and did not state the time period it covered. The details of the cryptocurrency listings, as well as other information in the disclosure, suggest it was through the end of December 2024, which would exclude most of the money raised by the family's cryptocurrency ventures. Given the speed at which the Trump family has made deals during his ascent to the presidency, the filing is already a time capsule of sorts, capturing a period when the family was just starting to get into crypto but was largely still in the world of real estate deals and golf clubs. A meme coin released earlier this year by the president - $TRUMP - alone has earned an estimated $320 million in fees, although it's not publicly known how that amount has been divided between a Trump-controlled entity and its partners. In addition to the meme coin fees, the Trump family has raked in more than $400 million from World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance company. The Trump family is involved, also, with a bitcoin mining operation and digital asset exchange-traded funds. In the disclosures, Trump reported $57.35 million from token sales at World Liberty. He also reported holding 15.75 billion governance tokens in the venture. TRUMP MEDIA The wealth of the Republican businessman-turned-politician ranges from crypto to real estate, and a large part on paper is tied up in his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group, owner of social media platform Truth Social. Besides assets and revenues from his business ventures, the president reported at least $12 million in income, including through interest and dividends, from passive investments totaling at least $211 million, a Reuters calculation shows. His biggest investments were in alternative fund manager Blue Owl Capital Corp and in government bond funds managed by Charles Schwab and Invesco. The disclosure often only gave ranges for the value of his assets and income; Reuters used the lower amount listed, meaning the total value of his assets and income was almost certainly higher. The disclosure showed income from various assets including Trump's properties in Florida. Trump's three golf-focused resorts in the state - Jupiter, Doral and West Palm Beach - plus his nearby private members' club at Mar-a-Lago generated at least $217.7 million in income, according to the filing. Trump National Doral, the expansive Miami-area golf hub known for its Blue Monster course, was the family's single largest income source at $110.4 million. The income figures provided are essentially revenues, not net profits after subtracting costs. The disclosure underlined the global nature of the Trump family business, listing income of $5 million in license fees from a development in Vietnam, $10 million in development fees from a project in India and almost $16 million in licensing fees for a Dubai project. Trump collected royalty money, also, from a variety of deals - $1.3 million from the Greenwood Bible (its website describes it as "the only Bible officially endorsed by Lee Greenwood and President Trump"); $2.8 million from Trump Watches, and $2.5 million from Trump Sneakers and Fragrances. Trump listed $1.16 million in income from his NFTs - digital trading cards in his likeness - while First Lady Melania Trump earned around $216,700 from license fees on her own NFT collection. (Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne, Tom Bergin, Tom Lasseter, Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Jim Oliphant; Editing by Sandra Maler, Paritosh Bansal, Megan Davies, Will Dunham and Raju Gopalakrishnan)


The Sun
7 hours ago
- The Sun
Israel threatens to make Tehran 'burn' after Iranian retaliatory strikes
JERUSALEM: Iran and Israel traded missiles and airstrikes on Saturday, the day after Israel launched a sweeping air offensive against its old enemy, killing commanders and scientists and bombing nuclear sites in a stated bid to stop it building an atomic weapon. In Tehran, Iranian state TV reported that around 60 people, including 20 children, had been killed in an attack on a housing complex, with more strikes reported across the country. Israel said it had attacked more than 150 targets. In Israel, air raid sirens sent residents into shelters as waves of missiles streaked across the sky and interceptors rose to meet them. At least three people were killed overnight. An Israeli official said Iran had fired around 200 ballistic missiles in four waves. U.S. President Donald Trump has lauded Israel's strikes and warned of much worse to come unless Iran quickly accepts the sharp downgrading of its nuclear programme that the U.S. has demanded in talks that had been due to resume on Sunday. But with Israel saying its operation could last weeks, and urging Iran's people to rise up against their Islamic clerical rulers, fears have grown of a regional conflagration dragging in outside powers. The United States, Israel's main ally, helped shoot down Iranian missiles, two U.S. officials said. 'If (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn,' Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said. Iran had vowed to avenge Friday's Israeli onslaught, which gutted Iran's nuclear and military leadership and damaged atomic plants and military bases. Tehran warned Israel's allies that their regional military bases would come under fire too if they help shoot down Iranian missiles, Iranian state television reported. However, 20 months of war in Gaza and a conflict in Lebanon last year have decimated Tehran's strongest regional proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, reducing its options for retaliation. Gulf Arab states that have long mistrusted Iran but fear coming under attack in any wider conflict have urged calm as worries about disruption to the Gulf region's crucial oil exports boosted the price of crude by about 7% on Friday. Iranian general and parliament member Esmail Kosari said the country was seriously reviewing whether to close the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet for oil shipped from the Gulf. NIGHT OF BLASTS AND FEAR IN ISRAEL AND IRAN Iran's overnight fusillade included hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones, an Israeli official said. Three people, including a man and a woman, were killed and dozens wounded, the ambulance service said. In Rishon LeZion, south of Tel Aviv, emergency services rescued a baby girl trapped in a house hit by a missile, police said. Video showed teams searching through the rubble of one home. In the western suburb of Ramat Gan, near Ben Gurion airport, Linda Grinfeld described her apartment being damaged: 'We were sitting in the shelter, and then we heard such a boom. It was awful.' The Israeli military said it had intercepted surface-to-surface Iranian missiles as well as drones, and that two rockets had been fired from Gaza. In Iran, Israel's two days of strikes destroyed residential apartment buildings, killing families and neighbours as apparent collateral damage in strikes targetting scientists and senior officials in their beds. Iran said 78 people were killed on the first day and scores more on the second day, including when a missile brought down a 14-storey apartment block in Tehran. State TV said 60 people were believed to have been killed there, though the figure was not officially confirmed. It broadcast pictures of the aftermath, with the collapsed building flattened into debris and the facade of several upper storeys lying sideways in the street, while slabs of concrete dangled from a neighbouring building. 'Smoke and dust were filling all the house and we couldn't breathe,' 45-year-old Tehran resident Mohsen Salehi told Iranian news agency WANA after an overnight air strike woke his family. Fars News agency said two projectiles had hit Mehrabad airport, located inside the capital, which is both civilian and military. With Iran's air defences heavily damaged, Israeli Air Force chief Tomer Bar said 'the road to Iran has been paved'. In preparation for possible further escalation, reservists were being deployed across Israel. Army Radio reported units had been positioned along the Lebanese and Jordanian borders. IRANIAN NUCLEAR SITES DAMAGED Israel sees Iran's nuclear programme as a threat to its existence, and said the bombardment was designed to avert the last steps to production of a nuclear weapon. A military official on Saturday said Israel had caused significant damage to Iran's nuclear facilities at Natanz and Isfahan, but had not so far operated in another uranium enrichment site, Fordow. The official said Israel had 'eliminated the highest commanders of their military leadership' and had killed nine nuclear scientists who 'were main sources of knowledge, main forces driving forward the (nuclear) programme'. Tehran insists the programme is entirely civilian in line with its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that it does not seek an atomic bomb. However, it has repeatedly hidden parts of its programme from international inspectors, and the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday reported it in violation of the NPT. Iranian talks with the United States to resolve the nuclear dispute have stuttered this year. The next meeting is set for Sunday. Tehran implied it would not attend but stopped short of pulling out. 'The other side (the U.S.) acted in a way that makes dialogue meaningless,' state media quoted foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei as saying. 'It is still unclear what decision we will make on Sunday in this regard.'