TEHRAN
\nIran said on Monday that a recent wave of Israeli strikes against the country was \u201cfully coordinated\u201d with the United States\u2019 forces. Tehran\u2019s statement comes after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks for the first time since the shaky ceasefire in the Middle East war took effect on April 8, despite US President Donald Trump calling for restraint.
\nThe flare-up, which also drew in other countries in the region, saw Israel striking Iran after the latter targeted it in vengeance for an airstrike on Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs. No casualties have been reported so far in either Israel or Iran.
\n\u201cThe direct responsibility of the United States for the actions of the Zionist regime is clear, and the consequences of escalating tensions will also fall on the United States,\u201d Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told a new briefing, according to state news agency IRNA.
\n\u201cNo one believes that the Zionist regime would carry out any action without prior coordination and cooperation with the United States,\u201d Baqaei said.\u201cIt is perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected,\u201d the official observed.
\nNonetheless, Baqaei said that Pakistan\u2019s mediation efforts to end the war with the US were continuing even after fighting resumed with Israel.\u201cDiplomatic consultations are naturally continuing in all circumstances,\u201d the spokesman said.
\nBaqaei further stressed that it had \u201cbeen frequently repeated by us together with the Pakistani mediator that Lebanon is part and parcel of the [ceasefire] agreement\u201d, according to Al Jazeera.\u201cWe cannot allow the Zionist entity or the United States to undermine this part of the part of the deal,\u201d he was quoted as saying.
\n\u201cThese events [of the past day] will definitely intensify suspicions. We were already exchanging messages with the American side in an atmosphere of extreme suspicion,\u201d the Iranian official noted. \u201cThe US\u2019s contradictions to date \u2013 whether intentional or unintentional \u2013 have caused enough chaos in the diplomatic process.
\nThe incidents that have occurred in the past 24 hours will only fuel this chaotic situation in the diplomatic process,\u201d he added. Baqaei also reiterated Tehran\u2019s stance that the head of the United Nations\u2019 nuclear watchdog was disregarding the realities of the conflict and held biased views.
\nHe contended that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi was \u201cacting with deliberate bias against Iran and the Iranian nuclear issue\u201d, according to Al Jazeera.
\nTit-for-tat strikes after Iran\u2019s warning Earlier on Monday, an Israeli airstrike targeted a petrochemical firm in southwestern Iran, causing partial damage to the industrial complex, Iranian officials said. Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Tehran had retaliated against the attack by striking similar industrial targets in Israel\u2019s Haifa.
\nIsrael\u2019s attacks had followed missile launches by Iran, whose military said it targeted Israel\u2019s Ramat David Airbase with ballistic missiles in response to Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon and Beirut. The statement warned that any further attacks would be met with \u201ca broader and more severe\u201d Iranian response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEHRAN Iran said on Monday that a recent wave of Israeli strikes against the country was \u201cfully coordinated\u201d with the United States\u2019 forces. Tehran\u2019s statement comes after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks for the first time since the shaky ceasefire in the Middle East war took effect on April 8, despite US President Donald Trump …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98808,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98793\/revisions\/98808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}