No pact to resume talks with US: Iran

Iran is assessing the damage caused to its nuclear energy sites by Israeli and US bombings, while no arrangement or commitment has been made to resume negotiations with the United States, according to its top diplomat.

Yet, the possibility of restarting talks is under consideration but will depend on whether Tehran's national interests would be protected, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi was cited as saying by Xinhua News Agency.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Thursday that the US has no meetings scheduled with Iran, one day after US President Donald Trump said the two sides would talk and meet "next week".

In a televised interview on Thursday evening, Araghchi confirmed that the damage caused by the 12-day conflict with Israel was "serious" and experts from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran were conducting a detailed assessment. He reiterated it was early to perceive that "the ground is prepared for negotiations".

Araghchi denounced the US' complicity in Israel's military attack on Iran while Iran was scheduling diplomatic talks with the US, Tasnim News Agency reported.

Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran's nuclear and residential areas on June 13 with the US further escalating tensions by Sunday, when it struck Iran's nuclear facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan.

On Monday, Iranian military forces unleashed retaliatory missile strikes. Iran targeted the US' Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar before a ceasefire came into force on Tuesday.

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Thursday that a law suspending the country's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, has been submitted to the government for implementation, following approval by the Constitutional Council, Xinhua reported.

In a post on social media platform X, Ghalibaf accused the IAEA of lacking "professional" conduct following recent attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.

On Thursday, both Iran and Israel highlighted victory in the conflict.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei congratulated the Iranian nation on its "victory", while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel's military campaign against Iran has created a "window of opportunity" to expand regional normalization agreements.

Civilians suffer

At a hybrid conference titled "Iran and Israel at War: Domestic and Regional Prospects" held in Doha, Qatar on Wednesday, Mehran Kamrava, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar, said "it was really the civilians in Iran and in Israel that suffered the brunt of the conflict".

Marwan Kabalan, director of political studies at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, who also chairs the Gulf Studies Forum, said at the same panel it was too early to say who won or lost in this conflict.

He said the security and intelligence war is going to continue from both the Iranian and the Israeli sides, and possibly with more confrontations like raids.

"This has been an ongoing war," he said.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Thursday welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, and urged the countries involved to avoid further escalation.

Cui Haipei in Dubai, UAE and Xinhua contributed to this story.

jan@chinadailypac.com