Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrives to Lebanon to meet with Lebanese officials, at Beirut international airport, Lebanon, June 3, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters.

According to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks, which began on June 13.

They said the talks included a brief discussion of a US proposal given to Iran at the end of May that aims to create a regional consortium that would enrich uranium outside of Iran, an offer Tehran has so far rejected.

US and Iranians officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter.

This week’s phone discussions were the most substantive direct talks since the two began negotiations in April. On those occasions, in Oman and Italy, the two men exchanged brief words when they encountered each other after indirect talks were held.

A regional diplomat close to Tehran said Araqchi had told Witkoff that Tehran “could show flexibility in the nuclear issue” if Washington pressured Israel to end the war.

A European diplomat said: “Araqchi told Witkoff Iran was ready to come back to nuclear talks, but it could not if Israel continued its bombing.”

Other than brief encounters after five rounds of indirect talks since April to discuss Iran‘s decades-old nuclear dispute, Araqchi and Witkoff had not previously held direct contacts.

A second regional diplomat who spoke to Reuters said “the [first] call was initiated by Washington, which also proposed a new offer” to overcome the deadlock over clashing red lines.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT

US President Donald Trump wants Tehran to end uranium enrichment on its soil, while Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Tehran’s right to enrichment is non-negotiable.

Trump has been keeping his cards close to his chest over whether he will order US forces to join Israel‘s bombing campaign that it says aims to destroy Iran‘s nuclear program and ballistic capabilities. But Trump offered a glimmer of hope that diplomacy could resume, saying Iranian officials wanted to come to Washington for a meeting.

He rebuffed President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week when the French leader said Trump had told G7 leaders at a summit in Canada that the United States had made an offer to get a ceasefire and then kickstart broader discussions.

European officials have been coordinating with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also at the G7 summit.

Britain, France, and Germany, known as the E3 and party to a 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, held a ministerial call with Araqchi on Sunday. The three countries and the European Union are set to meet him in Geneva on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei and an EU official said.

Earlier in the week, both Rubio and Araqchi told the Europeans in separate talks about a possible diplomatic initiative, three diplomats said.

A senior European diplomat said what emerged at the G7 was that Trump wanted the operations to end very quickly and that he wanted the Iranians to talk to him, while making clear that they had to accept his demands if they wanted the war to end.

Given the Israeli strikes and Trump’s rhetoric, diplomats said Iran was in no position to hold public talks with the US, but that a meeting with the Europeans as a link to try and advance diplomacy was deemed more realistic for Tehran.

The post Iran Held Direct Talks With US Amid Intensifying Conflict With Israel, Diplomats Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Relatives and friends attend the funeral of four members of a family who were killed during a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Tamra, north Israel, June 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

When a phone alert sounded on Saturday night to warn of Iranian missiles flying towards his town of Tamra in northern Israel, Nidal Abu Al Heija called his sister to tell her to take shelter with her daughters, but no one answered.

After the alert, he rushed to the area where she lived. The street was full of people and littered with debris.

“I was asking people what happened, and someone, he just said to me ‘oh, Nidal.’ He didn’t know what to say. And then the other one says, ‘it’s your own sister’s house,’” Abu Al Heija said, speaking to Reuters four days after the strike.

The house had taken a direct hit. Part of the roof had collapsed, crushing the top floor. Windows and walls were blasted out and rubble tumbled down the side of the house.

“Darkness, dust, smell of bomb, something I don’t want to remember,” said Abu Al Heija.

“I was just going there shouting ‘Noura! Noura! Shada! Hala!’ And then unfortunately I saw her coming, people holding her, with no breath.”

Known to her family as Noura, Manar Abu Al Heija Katib, 45, and two of her daughters, Shada, 20, and Hala, 13, were killed, along with Manar’s sister-in-law, Manar Diab Katib, 41.

The only survivors were Manar Abu Al Heija Katib’s husband, Raja Katib, and their third daughter, Razan.

The dead were among those killed in the conflict with Iran since Israel launched air and missile attacks on Iran a week ago that have wiped out the top echelon of Iran’s military command, damaged nuclear capabilities, and killed hundreds of Iranians.

Iran has aimed hundreds of retaliatory missiles at Israel and killed at least two dozen people.

‘BURNING FIRE INSIDE’

In Tamra, a small Arab town about 25 km (16 miles) east of the port city of Haifa, relatives and the wider community are in shock.

“If I would have gone [died] with my wife and my two girls, it would have been easier because I have a burning fire inside,” Manar’s husband told reporters on Wednesday.

The sisters-in-law were both teachers. Their husbands, Raja Katib and his brother Ihab Katib, have described them to local media as wonderful women. Pictures of the two daughters showed them smiling warmly.

Nidal Abu Al Heija recalled telling people previously that the chances of being killed in the war with Iran were tiny. Now he said he was dealing with an unfathomable loss.

“Noura was the thing that we loved. Noura was the thing that united the family,” he said.

The four had run to a protected room on the top level of the house, he said, but it could not withstand the Iranian missile.

Tamra has been hit by rockets before, but smaller ones fired by terrorist group Hezbollah from southern Lebanon.

Since Saturday’s strike, many residents of Tamra have begun spending the night in public shelters inside schools.

On Tuesday, four simple wooden coffins with wreaths of red and white flowers were carried through the narrow streets of Tamra, with crowds of men chanting as they walked alongside and people watching from every window and doorstep.

At the town‘s cemetery, Muslim prayers rang out from a loudspeaker and a large number of men, mostly dressed in black, surrounded the gravediggers and relatives as the four were laid to rest.

Afterwards, a group of women and girls paid their respects by the graves. They wept and embraced each other as they walked away.

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A drone photo shows the damage over residential homes and a school at the impact site following a missile attack from Iran on Israel, in Bnei Brak, Israel, June 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Chen Kalifa

In the 1970s, I arrived in Israel as an exchange student from Berkeley. The country was still reeling from the Yom Kippur War — having narrowly escaped annihilation. Confidence was shattered, every household had felt loss, and the optimism of 1967 felt like a distant memory.

What struck me at the time was how so many Israelis in the prime of life were desperate for any visa — especially to the US — as a way to escape runaway inflation and collective despair.

Today, circumstances couldn’t be more different. Despite being under siege by ballistic missiles, hundreds of thousands of Israelis –abroad for holidays, studies, or business — are now desperately trying to return. Observers have noted that this is the only country at war where people are racing to come home.

Those who are able to return are being greeted by a reality like my own experience last Sunday night — when a missile landed just a hundred yards from my front door.

I was below ground in a reinforced concrete bomb shelter, but its steel doors rattled like a tin can during impact. When I emerged in the pre-dawn light, my familiar neighborhood near Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market was unrecognizable: glass littered the streets, debris was piled around shattered homes, and storefronts were heavily damaged. In my sandals, I helped elderly neighbors walk back to their flats, treading as carefully as possible through the glittering shards.

Adrenaline kept me going, but as daylight fell and I absorbed the scale of destruction, the weight of the night hit home. My daughter, in New York, called in tears. “The airport is closed — how will you get out of there?” she sobbed. I responded firmly: “Should 7 million Jews pack up and go? I could do that, but you’ll have to say goodbye to your future.”

These past few days have been an exhausting blur of sirens, shelter drills, and rehearsed routines. Our neighborhood — laced with 1930s Bauhaus structures — was never built for war. After October 7, rocket barrages from Gaza became the norm. But now the threat has escalated far beyond that.

When the sirens sound, my wife and I have only 60 to 90 seconds: shoes on, phones in hand, down three flights of stairs, into the street, and into a nearby public shelter. Even in deep sleep, muscle memory guides us to safety without thought. What once felt almost routine — trusting the Iron Dome to intercept rockets — now seems fragile in comparison.

The reason is stark: Iran’s Fattah‑1 hypersonic ballistic missiles are changing the game.

Traveling at speeds up to Mach 13–15, equipped with maneuverable gliding warheads, they often evade interception systems. Launched hundreds of times, they are specifically targeted at civilian centers. While Israel’s multi-layered defenses — Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow — still intercepts most missiles, those that get through inflict serious damage, sometimes even striking designated safe rooms.

Fortunately, because these missiles come from long range, our phones buzz early — giving us those precious extra seconds to reach shelter before the local sirens blare.

Inside the shelter, an unexpected sense of community emerges. Elderly neighbors shuffle in anxiously, attempting to navigate steps under duress. Meanwhile, children born shortly before and after October 7 — some mere toddlers when conflict erupted — play confidently, chattering with each other, hugging dogs, and passing toys. Their eyes show not terror but determination and spirit. These are the children of Israel: enduring, brave, noble.

I’ve witnessed Israel’s journey — from the despair of the 1970s through its revival, and now this current test. We are standing under a barrage of missiles, yet refusing to sacrifice either our values or our indigenous homeland to hate-driven terror.

There is no question that these hypersonic missiles fundamentally alter our security assumptions. They undermine systems designed for slower threats, strain the resilience of shelter infrastructure built to older standards, and force us to rehearse survival in a way we never imagined. Yet even as threats evolve, so do we — fastening shoes, teaching children to run, organizing neighbors, maintaining routine in the ruins. We show up, day after day.

In this shelter — not by accident, but by conviction — we are proclaiming to the world: we are here. We are unbowed. We will stay.

Dr. Ron Katz is President of the Tel Aviv Institute. He can be reached at tlvi.org

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