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The view from a living room of a residential building that was destroyed by an Israeli air strike on June 13, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
British, French, and German foreign ministers, along with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, are holding talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, in an attempt to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The talks follow White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s statement Thursday that President Donald Trump will decide within the next couple of weeks whether to take military action against Iran.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy met Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff at the White House.
Lammy said in a statement on the social media platform X that the situation in the Middle East “remains perilous.”
“We are determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon,” Lammy said. “We discussed how a deal could avoid a deepening conflict. A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution.”
On Thursday, in comments that were broadcast on Friday on Iranian state television, Araghchi said Iran was “not seeking negotiations with anyone” while the Israeli attacks continued.
“It is the Americans who want talks,” said Araghchi, “They’ve sent messages several times, very serious ones, but we made it explicitly clear to them that as long as this aggression and invasion continue, there is absolutely no room for talk or diplomacy. We are engaged in legitimate self-defense, and this defense will not stop under any circumstances.”
A joint statement, published on Wednesday, said the European foreign ministers had held a long phone conversation with Araqhchi on Monday and “reaffirmed Israel’s right to protect its security and people, in adherence with international law.”
The statement concluded by saying the European ministers and Kallas “underscored their call to de-escalate and their commitment to contribute and to reach a negotiated solution to Iran’s nuclear program.”
The EU and the so-called E3 (Britain, France, and Germany) have also been coordinating with Rubio.
On June 13, Israel began a series of air strikes on key targets in Iran, hours after the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution declaring Iran noncompliant and in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The massive air campaign—code-named “Operation Rising Lion”—involved attacks throughout Iran including on nuclear facilities. Israel has also killed several senior military officers.
On June 19, Israel struck two more nuclear sites, including a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium and the country’s largest uranium enrichment facility.
On June 20, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted on X, “More than 50 fighter jets struck selected targets of the nuclear weapons program and industrial sites for missile component production in Tehran overnight.”
The IDF, in another post, said, “The air force struck several Iranian missile systems intended to target our aircraft in the Isfahan region. In recent days, fighter jets have targeted Iranian missile systems and radars in the Isfahan and Tehran areas that were designed to strike IDF aircraft and prevent their operations.”
On June 18, the IDF confirmed one of their drones had been shot down near Isfahan in central Iran.
Iran’s state-run television IRIB television showed footage of what they said was the wreckage of an Israeli Hermes 900 drone.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles toward Israel in the last week and on June 19, one of them damaged a building at the Soroka Hospital complex in Beer Sheva in southern Israel, causing damage and minor injuries.
On Thursday, Israeli media and news agency AFP said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told reporters, “Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed. He personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. A dictator like Khamenei, who heads a country like Iran and has made the destruction of Israel his mission, cannot continue to exist.”
On Thursday, Lammy said on X, “Now is the time to put a stop to the grave scenes in the Middle East and prevent a regional escalation that would benefit no one.”
