TEHRAN – Ali Bagheri Kani, Secretary of Iran’s Council for Strategic Foreign Relations, has revealed Washington’s deliberate sabotage of a comprehensive nuclear agreement finalized during the administration of the late President Ebrahim Raisi.

In a televised interview on Saturday, Bagheri Kani stated: “Under President Raisi’s time in office [2021-2024], multiple negotiation rounds in Vienna, Tehran, and New York culminated in a complete draft agreement. The sole obstacle to its realization was the United States’ refusal to commit.”

Dismissing claims of internal obstruction, he emphasized Iran’s negotiating team operated strictly "within the strategic framework of the system," rendering domestic interference impossible.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s Permanent Representative to Vienna-based international organizations, corroborated this assessment in a January interview with the Tehran Times.

He confirmed remaining JCPOA signatories were poised to revive the pact in 2022 when European powers abruptly abandoned negotiations "in coordination with Washington" – a move coinciding with Iran’s domestic unrest.

Ulyanov stressed that salvaging the accord "depends entirely on U.S. actions", underscoring European subordination to American agendas.

Efforts to resume negotiations under President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government were violently shattered on June 13, 2025, when the Israeli regime launched airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, military sites, and civilian infrastructure.

The U.S. escalated hostilities on June 22, deploying B-2 stealth bombers to strike nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan.

This 12-day campaign of aggression martyred over 1,065 Iranians, including civilians, scientists, and military personnel.

Iranian officials condemned the assault as a "betrayal of diplomacy," revealing Washington’s duplicity in advocating talks while enabling military aggression.

Iran’s retaliatory Operation True Promise III inflicted unprecedented damage on the Israeli military and economic infrastructure, overwhelming U.S.-Israeli air defenses.

Crucially, Iranian forces struck Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar – the Pentagon’s critical regional command center – damaging its geodesic communications dome and exposing U.S. vulnerability.

The conflict came to a halt only after the Israeli regime, facing depleted missile stockpiles and the prospect of collapsing civil infrastructure, requested a ceasefire on June 24.

Despite the disruption, it appears that Tehran and Washington are weighing a return to indirect talks. According to a Friday report by the Tehran Times, Norway has emerged as a likely mediator for potential Iran–U.S. negotiations as early as this month, following rounds previously held in Muscat and Rome that were halted after the June 13 strikes.

Both sides are allegedly willing to restart, and that Tehran insists compensation for war damages be part of any new discussions alongside nuclear issues.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has indicated that any resumption will depend squarely on national interests, noting that Tehran has received messages from Washington but that decisions on talks are made within Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

He underlined that Iran seeks a “new phase” with the IAEA consistent with current realities, even as the June strikes and their aftermath hardened public views on external pressure tactics.

Officials and analysts in Tehran argue that the through-line across these episodes is Iran’s consistency on diplomacy versus recurring U.S. obstruction—whether in walking away from near-agreements, reimposing sanctions after 2018, or allowing military escalations to eclipse negotiations.

Domestic skepticism persists, with figures like former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili comparing renewed diplomacy to "idol worship."

Nevertheless, Iranian diplomats insist any dialogue requires enforceable U.S. guarantees against military strikes during negotiations – a condition reflecting hard-earned lessons in American unreliability.

With Norway-mediated contacts now under consideration, Iranian officials say the test is not Iran’s willingness to engage, but whether Washington will refrain from derailing another diplomatic track.