Iran warned Tuesday of Israel’s “destructive” influence on diplomacy ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington for talks expected to focus on US negotiations with Tehran.

“Our negotiating party is America. It is up to America to decide to act independently of the pressures and destructive influences that are detrimental to the region,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei in a weekly press briefing.

“The Zionist regime has repeatedly, as a saboteur, shown that it opposes any diplomatic process in our region that leads to peace.”

Baghaei also said that talks with the United States allowed Tehran to gauge Washington’s seriousness and showed enough consensus to continue on the diplomatic track.

Tehran and Washington resumed talks in Oman on Friday, months after earlier negotiations collapsed following Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran last June targeting nuclear and military sites, which triggered a 12-day air war.

“The Muscat meeting was not a long meeting. In our view, it was to gauge the seriousness of the other side and how to continue this path,” Baghaei said. “After the........

© The Times of Israel