Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh on Wednesday assailed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli premier of spreading "racist propaganda" and saying his plot against Iran has failed.
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Khatibzadeh, who was quoted by Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency, said, "Netanyahu is mad because he lost his friend in the White House and has gone back to spreading lies saturated with hate against Iran and inciting to racist Iranophobia."
He added: "It clearly pains him to see that all his conspiracies against Iran have failed and crumbled. From saving Jews throughout history to resisting the Zionist occupier, Iran has always fought oppressors and tyrants. History doesn't lie."
Earlier Wednesday, meanwhile, online news publication Axios reported that the US and Israel have agreed to reestablish a policy forum regarding Iran's nuclear program.
The first round of talks, according to Axios, will focus on intelligence surrounding Iran's atomic capabilities and will likely commence in the coming days.
Policy experts have highlighted the dramatic differences between Israel and the US over Tehran's nuclear policy, but the renewal of the policy forum could be a signal that Jerusalem and Washington are ready to approach the problem professionally.
According to Axios, the forum will be headed by the US and Israeli national security advisers – currently Jake Sullivan and Meir Ben-Shabbat respectively.
Both countries will also have various other defense, foreign policy and intelligence officials present at the talks.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi on Wednesday railed against Iran and its latest move to restrict UN inspectors from a number of suspected nuclear sites, calling it a "threat" that may require a future response.
Iran this week began limiting the International Atomic Energy Agency's access to sites and other information in response to the US refusal to lift sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump.
"Israel sees this step as a threat and it must not go by without a response," Ashkenazi said in a statement.
"We will never allow Iran to control the capability to acquire a nuclear weapon," he added.
Germany'sForeign Minister Heiko Maas urged Iran to accept diplomatic overtures coming from the West and also accused Tehran of further undermining the transparency it is required to show under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.
"In the end, Iran needs to understand that what's important is to de-escalate and accept the offer of diplomacy that's on the table, including from the United States," Maas said.
Iran's violations of the JCPOA pose a significant problem for US President Joe Biden, who is seeking to reverse the Trump administration's decision to pull the US unilaterally out of the deal three years ago, triggering the re-imposition of crippling economic sanctions on Iran.
Iran this week effectively set a deadline to lift those sanctions within three months, after which it said it would erase surveillance footage of its nuclear facilities.
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Maas said the transparency required of Iran under the JCPOA wouldn't be fulfilled during that period.
"But we still want to use these three months, together with other partners in the nuclear agreement, to discuss step by step how the US can return to this accord," Maas said. "And in particular [the discussion] will be about the sequence of measures. That is, who needs to take which step so that a general agreement can be achieved at the end of which the US are part of this agreement again."
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that "with or without a deal," Israel will not let Iran get nuclear weapons, warning Iran that "we will do everything so that you will not arm yourselves with nuclear weapons."
