Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he’s less than optimistic about the outcome of U.S.-Iran talks to strike a deal on the Middle Eastern country’s nuclear program.
President Donald Trump has said he believes negotiators are “getting close to maybe doing a deal,” but Khamenei quashed that sentiment Tuesday during a speech in Tehran.
“We don’t think it will lead to any outcome,” Khamenei said. “We don’t know what will happen.”
“The American side involved in these indirect negotiations should refrain from speaking nonsense,” he added.
The fundamental stumbling block of the discussions is the White House’s “red line” on nuclear enrichment at Iranian facilities.
The Iranian government said it is open to negotiating an arrangement to ease nations that fear its civilian nuclear program can be weaponized, but it refuses to entertain the idea of dismantling its nuclear facilities altogether.
“The messaging we — and the world — continue to receive is confusing and contradictory. Iran nonetheless remains determined and straightforward: Respect our rights and terminate your sanctions, and we have a deal,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday on social media. “Mark my words: there is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to enrichment for peaceful purposes: a right afforded to all other NPT signatories, too.”
This rhetoric is echoed at all levels of the Iranian foreign ministry, with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht Ravanchi saying on Monday that enrichment is considered a national achievement for her country and not up for debate.
“We will not back down on the issue of enrichment,” Ravanchi said.
Despite his largely optimistic tone, Trump has repeatedly implied severe consequences for Iran if a mutually satisfying deal cannot be struck.
LARGE-SCALE DEPORTATIONS OF AFGHANS STAND TO INCREASE TERRORIST RECRUITMENT POOL
On the last day of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Saudi Arabia last week, Trump made an overture to seeking common ground with Iran while stressing the necessity of its disentanglement from regional terrorist forces and the end of its nuclear program.
“I want to make a deal with Iran,” Trump said. “I want to do something if it’s possible, but for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
