Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday reaffirmed Iran’s long-standing position that it does not seek nuclear weapons and will never develop them. The comments come as Trump administration officials threaten war over claims Tehran may be pursuing a bomb, even as President Trump insists he already “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program.
Aragchi made the remarks in a post on X where he referenced upcoming talks with the US in Geneva and said Iran was ready for a deal with the US while also affirming Tehran’s right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
“Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people,” Araghchi wrote on X.
“We have a historic opportunity to strike an unprecedented agreement that addresses mutual concerns and achieves mutual interests. A deal is within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority,” he added.
Later in the day, Fox News host Brett Baier said that President Trump told him that Iran “desperately wants a deal” but claimed Tehran “just can’t say the sacred phrase ‘we won’t build nuclear weapons’” despite Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s long-standing fatwa against developing nuclear weapons.
Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is leading the negotiations, also made a similar claim in an interview that aired over the weekend. “Why, under this sort of pressure, with the amount of seapower, naval power, that we have over there, why they haven’t come to us and said, ‘we profess that we don’t want a [nuclear] weapon, so here’s what we’re prepared to do,’ yet it’s hard to get them to that point,” Witkoff said.
The US envoy also made the false claim that Iran could be a “week away” from having material to develop a nuclear bomb, even though there’s no sign Iran is able to enrich uranium at the moment, following the US strikes on its nuclear facilities in June 2025.
Other senior Trump officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have framed the potential attack on Iran as related to the prospect of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. But President Trump continues to say he destroyed the Iranian nuclear program, and hasn’t provided a coherent reason for why he is preparing to launch a major war in the Middle East.
