'Speak to the US', Britain pleads with Iran as it warns of 'very dangerous' consequences if Trump intervenes
21 June 2025, 07:17 | Updated: 21 June 2025, 19:54
Britain has urged Iran to negotiate with the US after Donald Trump claimed Tehran "doesn't want to speak to Europe" about stopping the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
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Foreign Secretary David Lammy has pleaded with Washington to negotiate with Iran amid the "perilous" fighting between Iran and Israel.
Mr Lammy said Britain is “keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States”.
“We were clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
His comments came following a meeting with Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday with foreign ministers from France and Germany and the EU’s foreign policy chief.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Lammy told reporters: “It is still clear to me, as President Trump indicated yesterday, that there is a window of within two weeks where we can see a diplomatic solution.”
Urging Iran to “take that off ramp” and talk to the Americans, he said: “We have a window of time. This is perilous and deadly serious.”
But Mr Araghchi told reporters Tehran "cannot go through negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardment".
"The US has been involved in the aggression since day one", he claimed without providing evidence, warning that Amercian intervention in the conflict would be "very very dangerous".
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday evening that it is "very hard" to request that Israel stops its strikes, something Iran called on the US to do.
Mr Trump went on to claim that Iran "doesn't want to speak to Europe" and that the country "wants to speak to us".
He added: "Europe is not going to be able to help at this point" and it would be “very hard to stop” Israeli strikes on Iran to negotiate a ceasefire.
It comes after Trump announced he would delay a decision on joining Israeli strikes against Iran for up to two weeks.
At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since the first strikes were launched on 13 June, according to Iran's health ministry.
Iran and Israel have exchanged fresh attacks on Saturday morning, resulting in the death of veteran Iranian commander, Israel's defence minister has said.
He added that the US and Europe were pushing for Iran to agree to zero enrichment of uranium as a “starting point” for negotiations.
Both sides continued to exchange fire on Friday, with Iranian missiles targeting the city of Haifa while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv’s military operation would continue “for as long as it takes”.
Meanwhile, the UK Government has announced it will use charter flights to evacuate Britons stranded in Israel once the country’s airspace reopens.
Mr Lammy said work is under way to provide the flights “based on levels of demand” from UK citizens who want to leave the region.
The move follows criticism of the Foreign Office’s initial response, which saw family members of embassy staff evacuated while UK citizens were not advised to leave and told to follow local guidance.
The Government said the move to temporarily withdraw family members had been a “precautionary measure”.
On Friday, the Foreign Office announced that UK staff had also been evacuated from Iran, with the embassy continuing to operate remotely.
But the Government continues to advise British nationals in the region to follow local advice, rather than urging them to leave.
The US evacuated 79 staff and families from the embassy in Israel on Friday local time, according to the Associated Press.
Mr Trump told reporters his national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard was “wrong” when she told lawmakers in March that US intelligence officials did not believe Iran had been building a nuclear weapon.
