Netanyahu urges US envoy to be skeptical of Iran in revived nuclear talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday amid efforts to revive diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear programme that Tehran was unlikely to honour any potential agreement.

In a meeting with the US envoy, Netanyahu “made clear his position that Iran has repeatedly proven that its promises cannot be trusted,” a statement from his office said.

Two Israeli officials said the meeting was also attended by Israel’s spy agency head David Barnea, Defence Minister Israel Katz and military commander Eyal Zamir.

Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Trump had set three conditions for resumption of talks: Zero enrichment of uranium in Iran; limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile programme; and ending its support for regional proxies, which align with longstanding Israeli demands.

Iran has long said all three demands are unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers saw the ballistic missile programme, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.

Iran and the United States will resume nuclear talks on Friday in Turkey. US President Donald Trump has warned that with US warships heading to Iran, bad things would probably happen if a deal could not be reached.

Tensions between Tehran and Washington are running high and the arrival of a US aircraft carrier and supporting warships in the Middle East has expanded Trump’s ability to take military action if he so wishes, after repeatedly threatening intervention over Iran’s bloody crackdown.

During the early January protests, witnesses and rights groups said, security forces crushed demonstrations with lethal force, leaving thousands dead and many wounded. Tehran blamed the violence on “armed terrorists” linked to Israel and the US.