Thousands Of Iranians Take To The Streets, Israeli Protests Shout Anti-Western

UNSPLASH/mostafa ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Tehran and other cities on Friday to protest against Israel. The crowd waved the flag and chanted anti-Western slogans.

Reported by CNN, Friday, June 20, Iranian state TV shows a large crowd of people walking through the streets of the capital, Tehran. Some carried pictures of Iranian commanders who have been killed by Israel since the start of the conflict.

Others raised flags from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah one of Iran's main allies in the region.

The video of Iran's semi-official news agency, Tasnim, shows protesters chanting anti-Israeli and anti-UK slogans.

Most recently, Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs (Menlu) Abbas Araghchi confirmed there was no room for negotiations with the United States. Most recently, President Donald Trump weighed within two weeks to decide the US involvement in the attack on Iran.

"There is no room for negotiations with the US until the Israeli aggression stops," AragCHI was quoted as saying on Iranian state TV on Friday, June 20.

European foreign ministers met with Iran's Foreign Minister on Friday to find a way back to diplomacy over its disputed nuclear program despite the US considering joining Israeli attacks on Iran.

The ministers from Britain, France, and Germany, known as E3, plus the EU's foreign policy chief, spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to approve the meeting earlier this week and have coordinated with the United States.

"Iran can't sit with America, while we can," a European diplomat said.

"We will ask them to return to the negotiating table to discuss nuclear issues before the worst-case scenario occurs, while expressing our concern over its ballistic missile, its support for Russia, and the detention of our citizens," he continued.

The negotiations are scheduled for Friday afternoon in Geneva, where an initial agreement between Iran and major countries of the world was held to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions was reached in 2013 before a comprehensive deal in 2015.

Separate negotiations between Iran and the US failed when Israel launched what it called Operation Rising Lion against Iran's nuclear facilities and ballistic capabilities on June 12.