Iran urges IAEA to be impartial, hopes Grossi's visit will bear fruit

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will travel to Moscow later this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed on Monday.

The spokesman said the trip, which will precede a second round of Iran-US talks in Rome, had been planned in advance.

“Based on a prearranged schedule, the Foreign Minister will travel to Russia later this week and during this visit, various issues—including the latest developments in Muscat—will be discussed," he said, referring to the first round of talks with the United States held in Muscat.

Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Araghchi is scheduled to meet with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov as well as other senior Russian officials.

"We've got a problem with Iran, but I'll solve that problem. That's almost an easy one," US President Donald Trump told reporters in the White House on Monday.

"Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon," he added. "I think they're tapping us along because they were so used to dealing with stupid people in this country."

"They've got to go fast, because they're fairly close to having one, and they're not going to have one. And if we have to do something very harsh, we'll do it. And I'm not doing it for us, I'm doing it for the world. And these are radicalized people. and they cannot have a nuclear weapon."

Asked if his remarks referred to strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Trump responded: "Of course it does."

"Trump has clearly delineated a deadline for Iran talks, and we know that as the author of 'Art of the Deal', he's not allowing the Iranians to drag this out indefinitely," former State Department deputy special envoy Ellie Cohanim told Fox News on Monday.

US President Donald Trump sent a letter in March to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei which included a two-month deadline for reaching a new nuclear deal.

Trump indicated to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there are 60 days from Saturday April 12 allocated for nuclear talks with Iran, Israel's Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

“Given the ongoing talks with the US government, what happens to the slogan ‘Death to America’?” an Iranian state TV host asked former Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.

Mehmanparast responded: “If the United States changes its behavior, it too can become one of the friends who benefits from the potential of the Iranian people.”

Former senior National Security Council official Michael Allen said on Monday that Israel has been eager to strike Iran sometime this year and ought to agree with United States on the desirability of the Washington's talks with Tehran.

"Israel and the United States need to come to an agreement that this is the right way to go, because I think Israel doesn't trust Iran at all. I think they want to bomb them this calendar year," he told Fox News in an interview.

"Netanyahu is saying to himself, I don't want this window to pass with us going down this negotiations pathway ... I maybe can begin to solve this problem forever," he added.

"I think he might go for it."