A senior Iranian official on Monday excoriated a meeting between U.S. and Israeli officials, calling it an illegal effort to thwart Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei blasted the meeting as a violation of international law and an effort that, in his view, Washington, D.C., and Tel Aviv remain powerless to stop. “When it comes to a country like Iran, they cannot do a damn thing,” he told reporters Monday, according to a readout provided by state media. Baghaei took aim at the sit-down between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, just one day earlier. Their meeting reportedly focused heavily on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.Netanyahu, for his part, had signaled growing momentum between the U.S. and his country to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, telling reporters after the Sunday meeting, “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job.” However, this was sharply disputed by Baghaei. “You cannot threaten Iran on one hand and claim to support dialogue on the other hand,” he added. Baghaei’s remarks come after Netanyahu boasted that Israeli military operations have weakened Iran’s proxy groups in the Middle East, including the Palestinian terror group Hamas. “We can and will finish the job,” the Israeli prime minister said. The U.S.-Israel meeting also served a symbolic purpose. During the sit-down, the U.S. sent a shipment of heavy bombs and munitions to Israel, in keeping with Trump’s promise to do so last month. The munitions and bomb shipments, “represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF,” an Israeli defense official said, “and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States.”
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Iran the evil empire