Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Tucker Carlson in an interview released on Monday that the US said it wouldn’t give permission to Israel to launch an attack on Iran during recent negotiations.
“We were told during the process of these negotiations and talks that as long as we (the US) don’t give permission to Israel, they’re not going to attack you, and we were going to have the next round of talks very soon, but suddenly, in the middle of it, Israel torpedoed the negotiating table,” Pezeshkian told Carlson through an interpreter.
Israel launched its war on Iran with airstrikes on June 13, two days before the US and Iran were set to hold another round of negotiations. Pezeshkian’s comments align with recent reporting that said the US and Israel engaged in a deception campaign ahead of the attack to keep Tehran off guard.
Just hours before Israel’s initial strikes on Iran, President Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social that he was still committed to a diplomatic solution with Iran. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the first Israeli warplanes were already in the air when Trump made the post.