Washington DC, March 3 -- Senior US administration officials have claimed that after three rounds of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme collapsed, Washington concluded that Tehran was "never serious about giving up its enrichment ambitions," and launched Operation Epic Fury within days of the final meeting.

For weeks, American diplomats sat across the table with officials from Iran and tried to reach a deal. They travelled to Oman and went to Switzerland. They offered incentives, laid out red lines, and kept coming back. In the end, they concluded it was all a waste of time and reported their findings to President Donald Trump.

Briefing reporters, including ANI, on Tuesday (local time) about the background of the US-led a...