Tehran Condemns Netanyahu’s Nuclear Smear Campaign as Desperate Move to Undermine U.S. Negotiations
Iran has firmly rejected a recent report by Fox News that claims the existence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons facility. This allegation has been characterized as a recycled disinformation campaign designed to disrupt the ongoing indirect nuclear talks with the United States.
In a post on X early Friday, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed these new claims, stating they are part of a larger pattern of fabricated intelligence that coincides with diplomatic negotiations. He stated, “Like clockwork, more Very Scary Satellite Images are being circulated as Iran-U.S. indirect nuclear talks are set to resume.”
Araqchi further accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of manipulating U.S. President Donald Trump through a policy he described as “Determining What @realdonaldtrump Can & Cannot Do.” He added, “This time, he is using Saddam’s Iranian henchmen,” referring to the anti-Iran terror group Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO). “They may come cheap, but hiring a literal cult only conveys utter desperation,” he emphasized.
The Iranian U.N. mission supported Araqchi’s statements, highlighting that the MKO has a notorious history of fabricating intelligence to gain recognition and influence Western policies. They stated, “The modus operandi of the terrorist cult known as the MKO demonstrates that it—in a desperate pursuit of recognition—furnishes fabricated reports, disguised as so-called intelligence findings, to Western intelligence services, including those of the United States.”
The mission also noted, “However, once such agencies come to discern the utter unreliability of the absurd reports churned out by the MKO terrorist cult, it then seeks out its next clientele among Western media outlets, aiming to exploit those platforms in order to ride the tide of media momentum.”
This controversy arises after Fox News published satellite images allegedly showing a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons facility. The report cited the MKO as its source and claimed that the facility is part of Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons capabilities.
As the backdrop to these allegations, Iran and the United States have engaged in three rounds of indirect talks concerning Iran’s nuclear program. The Islamic Republic asserts that its nuclear activities are strictly for peaceful purposes and consistently condemns disinformation campaigns that threaten to derail diplomatic progress.