Iran seeks peace talks, but threatens to leave nuclear weapons treaty

Iran has been sending mixed messages on the fourth day since Israel began attacks on Tehran. However, it continues to attack Israel and has threatened to exit a nuclear deal it ratified in 1970. Meanwhile, news outlets report that the conflict continues to escalate, and casualties and damages continue to rise in both countries.

While the Iranian leadership signals an end to hostilities, it has continued to attack Israel. It has threatened to abandon the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which indicates the contrary, that it intends to engage in a broader war and to continue its efforts to build a nuclear weapon.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Iran signals that it wants to de-escalate hostilities with Iran and privately says that it will resume talks over its nuclear program if the US stays out of the fight. However, a Reuters article citing an Iranian foreign ministry source, Iranian parliamentarians are preparing a bill that could push Tehran toward exiting the NPT, while reiterating Tehran’s official stance against developing nuclear weapons.

Iran is sending mixed messages

“In light of recent developments, we will take an appropriate decision. Government has to enforce parliament bills, but such a proposal is just being prepared and we will coordinate in the later stages with parliament,” the ministry’s spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, when asked at a press conference about Tehran potentially leaving the NPT, which Iran ratified in 1970.

Again, contradictorily, Iran’s state media reported that no decision on quitting the NPT had yet been made by parliament. In contrast, a parliamentarian stated that the proposal was in the initial stages of the legal process.

Iran has been urgently signalling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the United States via Arab intermediaries.

“Tehran has told Israel through intermediaries that containing the violence is in both countries’ interest,” the WSJ wrote.

Israel insists on neutralising Iran’s nuclear capabilities

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the attacks will continue until Iran’s nuclear program and its ability to fire ballistic missiles are neutralised, which could indicate the conflict will continue for days, as the Jewish state’s leader had previously warned.

The Guardian reported that Iran’s health ministry said that Israeli attacks had killed 224 people in Iran, 90 per cent of them civilians, and more than 1,400 had been injured. 

Israel’s defence minister, meanwhile, threatened further bombing strikes on Tehran, where an exodus of residents has been reported, clogging roads out of the capital.

In Israel, at least 23 civilians have been killed in Iran’s retaliatory missile strikes since Israel’s surprise attack on Friday morning. Nearly 600 more have been injured, according to official sources.

AP said that Iran had fired a new wave of missile attacks at Israel early Monday, killing at least eight people, while Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of Tehran to evacuate ahead of new strikes.

Three regional and two Iranian sources told Reuters Tehran has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to press U.S. President Donald Trump to use his influence on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire with Iran in return for Tehran’s flexibility in nuclear negotiations. The Gulf States are highly concerned that the conflict will spiral out of control, a Gulf source close to government officials told Reuters.

The conflict is only escalating, Iran weakened

At 6:45 pm on Monday, Al Jazeera reported that Pakistan had suspended all border crossings with Iran until further notice as the “Israel-Iran conflict rages”. Jordan has cancelled flights, but has kept its land crossings with Israel operational.

In the UK’s Financial Times opinion, the conflict is escalating, and it suggested Iran, struggling to counter these attacks conventionally, faces the risk of resorting to unconventional retaliation, such as cyberattacks or proxy attacks via groups like Hezbollah, if it continues to lose ground.

“Israel’s strategic goals include neutralising Iran’s nuclear programme and weakening its regime, with no immediate signs of de-escalation from Israel’s side,” the FT said. “Iran’s weakened position, coupled with its limited ability to respond effectively, raises concerns about a broader regional escalation.”

The FT also warned that a prolonged conflict could further destabilise the Middle East, with global implications for energy markets and security.

“(Israel’s) success or failure is overwhelmingly being defined by whether the US can be dragged in,” Daniel Levy, President of the U.S. Middle East Project and former Israeli government advisor, told the BBC. “Only the US can bring this to a timely endpoint in the near future by determining outcomes and stop points.”