Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called US demands for Iran to eliminate its civilian nuclear enrichment program “nonsense” and said he doesn’t think the negotiations with the US would “bring results.”
Iranian officials have made clear that the idea of dismantling Tehran’s nuclear enrichment program is a non-starter, but US officials have continued to make the demand, including Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East envoy, who has been leading negotiations with Iran.
“For them to say, ‘we won’t allow uranium enrichment,’ is utter nonsense,” Khamenei said at an event marking the one-year anniversary of the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
“We are not waiting for anyone’s permission. The Islamic Republic has certain policies and approaches, and it will pursue its own policy,” Khamenei added.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi, who has been leading negotiations with the US, has also had harsh words for the US demand for Iran to eliminate its enrichment program and said Tehran has yet to agree to hold a fifth round of talks.
“A date has been suggested, but we have not yet accepted it,” Aragchi said, according to Reuters. “We are witnessing positions on the US side that do not go along with any logic and are creating problems for the negotiations. That’s why we have not determined the next round of talks, we are reviewing the matter and hope logic will prevail.”
The Trump administration is under significant pressure from Republicans in Congress to settle for nothing less than a deal that eliminates Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. More than 200 GOP lawmakers made the demand in a recent letter to President Trump, which was likely an effort to sabotage diplomacy to bring the US and Iran closer to war.
Trump has been threatening that the US will attack Iran if a deal isn’t reached on its nuclear program, even though his intelligence agencies recently reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Tehran is building a bomb or that Khamenei has reversed his ban on the development of nuclear weapons.
Not only nonsense, but nonsense delivered by billionaire and possible Israeli dual citizen (anyone know?) Steve Witkoff, the very same guy who just screwed Hamas on a hostage deal, pulling the rug out from what was promised them in less than 48 hours. This is who you send when the message is we'd prefer that you shoot first, so we have an excuse.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/98b1214f29c54f8a402a975513ff4704553e4873dc59e9ee4c43b2a388f0f112.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eed35868039eff0587f8f39a58a2d12ee977e900a7ace881c5017a2ed691c65e.jpg
Cherry Picking Hypocrites who enable genocide while ignoring its nuke stockpile and its 'sampson option'…AAARRGGHH
https://www.amnesty.org/ar/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/mde150132010en.pdf
These demands are authored in TelAviv, and rubber stamped in Washington.
Bibi wants zero enrichment and the "Libyan model" for Iran.
In other words, they expect and actually want the answer of "No" as a prelude for war.
Re Israel and Washington neocon demands for total dismantling of Iran's civilian nuclear enrichment program, you write:
"they expect and actually want the answer…'No' as a prelude for war."
Yes: versus the fully-monitored and fully-complied-with civilian nuclear agreement that Trump broke in 2018…
…and with the aim of starting a massive war with extremely unpredictable and dangerous unknown results…
…the US position is now: 'I'm gonna make you an offer you can't accept.'
““We are not waiting for anyone’s permission. The Islamic Republic has certain policies and approaches, and it will pursue its own policy,” Khamenei added.”
Indeed. But someone should tell the supreme leader that he’s been in charge for 36 years now. Are these certain policies and approaches bearing fruit? All those billions spent (that were desperately needed back home modernizing the oil and gas sector) building up Hezbollah and Syria destroyed so easily. And how and why is it that Iran has to bargain in such a last minute fashion for a “right” it has every legal right to?
Things that can’t go on forever, don’t.
"'For [the US] to say, ‘we won’t allow uranium enrichment,’ is utter nonsense,' [Iran] said."
1/ Yes, as I said elsewhere on this thread, the US is 'making an offer you can't accept,' with the intent of provoking war.
2/ Also for the record – it is often forgotten or not reported – US demands are not just diplomatic "nonsense": Iran's civilian nuclear program ambition complies with international nuclear energy treaties:
"From 2003 to 2013, nuclear negotiations between the world powers and Iran failed because the United States denied Iran’s right to peaceful uranium enrichment activities. However, according to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), all member countries have the right to peaceful enrichment. Japan, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina have been allowed to develop enrichment programs….
"The nuclear negotiations from 2013 to 2015 led to the Iran nuclear deal because, then, the [US] did not oppose the principle of Iran enriching uranium for peaceful purposes. With the implementation of the JCPOA, Iran cooperated with the IAEA, and by December 2015, all of the agency’s technical ambiguities were resolved."
"Beyond Iran: a new nuclear doctrine for the Persian Gulf," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 5/13/25