Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that he would not reach a nuclear deal with the United States, citing demands on the country’s missile range and influence.
In a series of posts on X, Khamenei called the U.S. government “mandatory”, claiming that negotiations are just a means of imposing new demands.
“The negotiations like this are not intended to solve the problem,” Khamenei wrote. “Their purpose is to achieve their dominance and impose what they want.”
He added that the “request” is related to the country’s defense and international capabilities.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke at a meeting in Tehran, Iran on July 7, 2024. (Iran Leader’s Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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“Tell us not to do this, not to see that person, not to go there, not to produce it, and to limit the range of the missile to a certain extension,” Khamenei wrote. “Who can accept something like this?”
President Donald Trump said he had sent Khamenei a letter to Tehran to issue one day, indicating that there could be military consequences if no deal was reached.
Trump told reporters on Friday that the United States is the “last moment” Negotiation with Iranhe hopes there is no need for military intervention.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a speech in a plan after his death on October 2, 2024. (Iran Leader’s Press Office/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement Saturday that the government wants Iran to “put its people and best interests ahead of terror.”
“President Trump clearly says that Iran has two ways: military or agreement,” Hughes wrote.
Behnam Ben Taleblu, director of the Iran Program Foundation of the Democratic National Defense Foundation, wrote in a statement that Trump should be “cautious” in his discussions with Tehran.
“Tehran sets a trap for him to lure him into endless diplomacy that is used to blunt pressure and to curb the credibility of US or Israel’s military choices while spending time climbing onto nuclear weapons,” Ben Taleblu wrote in a statement.
Trump said in February that he believed Iran was “close to develop nuclear weapons”, but noted that the United States would block the action.
Iranian students attend the annual rally in front of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran on November 3, 2024, the 45th anniversary of Iranian students’ takeover of the embassy. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
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He also signed an administrative lawsuit ordering the Treasury Ministry to put “maximum economic pressure” on Iran through a series of sanctions that destroy the country’s oil exports.
The “maximum pressure” initiative against Tehran was enacted in Trump’s first administration, which introduced greater sanctions and stricter enforcement of illegal acts.
The president’s comments and Khamenei’s subsequent posts were days before the kidnap of the retired FBI agent Robert “Bob” Levinson on Sunday to Kish Island from Iran.
The FBI Washington Stadium posted on Facebook Friday that “remember Bob and his family every day” ahead of the anniversary and the national hostage and wrongful detention day.
President Trump is in Americafest, Arizona. (Rick Scuteri)
According to the Post, the FBI is still offering $5 million in rewards to lead to Levinson’s location, recovery and return.
The State Council The Judicial Program’s rewards offer up to $20 million in rewards to obtain information leading to his location, recovery and return and information that lead to arrest or conviction for anyone responsible for his alleged kidnapping.
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“As part of our ongoing efforts to resolve Bob’s case and holding the role of the Iranian regime in Bob’s disappearance, we recently released a search poster for Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai, two senior Iranian intelligence officers who worked for the Iranian Ministry of Intellectual and Security when Bob abstained from the power, the agency wrote in the agency.”
Diana Stancy of Fox News Digital contributed to the report.
