Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday called U.S. demands that Tehran stop enriching uranium entirely ‘utter nonsense’ and questioned whether future nuclear talks could succeed.
‘For the Americans to say, ‘We won’t allow Iran to enrich uranium,’ is utter nonsense,’ he said in a post on X. ‘We aren’t waiting for anyone’s permission.
‘The Islamic Republic has certain policies, and it will pursue them,’ he added, without expanding on what these policies are.
Iran in recent years has been under international pressure to halt its nuclear program, as many fear Tehran is actually in pursuit of nuclear weapons development.
Iran has not stated it intends to build a nuclear weapon, but it has enriched uranium to near-weapons grade and bolstered its missile program in what experts argue is an important step to ensure Tehran could fire a nuclear warhead.
While uranium can be enriched for civil nuclear power and nations across the globe rely on nuclear energy, including the U.S., which utilizes nuclear energy to supply nearly 20% of its energy needs and is its largest source of clean energy, Iran’s reliance on nuclear energy amounted to less than 1% in 2022, according to the International Energy Agency.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s questions over whether it has in fact demanded that Tehran halt all uranium enrichment.
However, Khamenei suggested the Trump administration’s push to negotiate on Iran’s nuclear program could be short-lived.
‘Indirect negotiations took place during Martyr Raisi’s term similar to what’s happening now. Needless to say, there was no result,’ he added in reference to negotiation attempts under the Biden administration. ‘We don’t think these negotiations will yield results now either. We don’t know what will happen.’
Reports suggested that the fifth round of nuclear talks could take place this weekend in Rome, but Khamenei, as well as his Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, said Iran had not yet agreed to the talks following the U.S.’ latest demands.
‘A date has been suggested, but we have not yet accepted it,’ Araqchi told reporters Tuesday, according to a Reuters report. ‘We are witnessing positions on the U.S. 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,’ Araqchi added.