By JON GAMBRELL, Related Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme chief stated Friday that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable” after President Donald Trump floated nuclear talks with Tehran.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei additionally steered that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” however stopped in need of issuing a direct order to not have interaction with Washington.
What occurs subsequent stays unclear, notably as reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian promised as not too long ago as Thursday to enter right into a dialogue with the West.
Khamenei’s remarks to air power officers in Tehran appeared to contradict his personal earlier remarks in August that opened the door to talks. Nonetheless, the 85-year-old Khamenei has at all times been cautious with remarks about negotiating with the West. That features balancing the calls for of reformists throughout the nation who need the talks towards hard-line components inside Iran’s theocracy, together with the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Khamenei famous that Trump unilaterally withdrew from the sooner nuclear deal below which Iran drastically restricted its enrichment of uranium and general stockpile of the fabric, in trade for crushing sanctions being eliminated.
“The Americans did not uphold their end of the deal,” Khamenei stated. “The very person who is in office today tore up the agreement. He said he would, and he did.”
He added: “This is an experience we must learn from. We negotiated, we gave concessions, we compromised— but we did not achieve the results we aimed for. And despite all its flaws, the other side ultimately violated and destroyed the agreement.”
Blended messages from each Iran and Trump
It’s not clear what sparked Khamenei’s remarks. Nonetheless, they arrive after Trump steered he needed to cope with Tehran, even whereas signing an government order to reimpose his “maximum pressure” strategy to Iran on Tuesday.
“I’m going to sign it, but hopefully we’re not going to have to use it very much,” he stated from the Oval Workplace. “We will see whether or not we can arrange or work out a deal with Iran.”
“We don’t want to be tough on Iran. We don’t want to be tough on anybody,” Trump added. “But they just can’t have a nuclear bomb.”
Trump adopted with one other on-line message on Wednesday, saying: “Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.”
“I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper,” he wrote on Reality Social. “We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed.” He didn’t elaborate.
Nuclear enrichment sparks issues
Khamenei, like different Iranian leaders, makes use of elliptical feedback to not directly govern coverage whereas not boxing himself into anyone choice. As supreme chief, he’s additionally created an enormous paperwork that competes with itself for affect, together with with its civilian management below Pezeshkian.
On this photograph launched by the official web site of the workplace of the Iranian supreme chief, Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attends a gathering with a gaggle of air power officers in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (Workplace of the Iranian Supreme Chief through AP)
As not too long ago as Thursday, Pezeshkian steered Iran might open itself as much as much more inspections from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the Worldwide Atomic Power Company.
“They (can) come and inspect one hundred times more since we are not supposed to go after” a nuclear weapon, Pezeshkian advised international diplomats.
Iranian diplomats have lengthy pointed to Khamenei’s preachings as a binding fatwa, or non secular edict, that Iran gained’t construct an atomic bomb.
Iran has lengthy insisted its nuclear program is for peaceable functions. Nonetheless, it now enriches uranium to 60% purity — a brief, technical step from weapons-grade ranges of 90%. Iranian officers more and more counsel Tehran might pursue an atomic bomb. U.S. intelligence companies assess that Iran has but to start a weapons program, however has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”
Iran calls U.S. sanctions on oil buying and selling corporations ‘unjustified’
Earlier within the week, Trump additionally stated that displaced Palestinians in Gaza could possibly be completely resettled outdoors the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take “ownership” in redeveloping the world into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Khamenei appeared to reference Trump’s Gaza proposal in his remarks.
“The Americans sit, redrawing the map of the world — but only on paper, as it has no basis in reality,” Khamenei stated. “They make statements about us, express opinions and issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them in return. If they act on their threats, we will act on ours. If they violate the security of our nation, we will, without a doubt, respond in kind.”
In the meantime, Iran’s International Ministry individually criticized the U.S. Treasury’s transfer to levy sanctions Thursday towards corporations buying and selling sanctioned Iranian crude oil to China. The Treasury described the corporations as forming an “international network for facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”
Iran’s International Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei known as the Treasury’s choice “completely unjustified and contrary to international rules and regulations.”
Related Press writers Amir Vahdat and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Initially Revealed: February 7, 2025 at 7:28 AM EST
