Iran's Pezeshkian bashes Trump threat: 'do whatever the hell you want'
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian lambasted US President Donald Trump's threat of military action if Tehran did not come to a nuclear deal, saying the Islamic Republic would not be forced to negotiate.
"What (Trump) did to that Zelensky is truly shameful," the relative moderate president said, referring to an oval office scrap between Trump and the Ukrainian president - Washington's erstwhile wartime partner.
Iranian officials have cited the blowup as a sign of the United States' fickleness and bullying on the world stage. Tehran has resisted Trump's overtures for a new deal over its nuclear program and its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has ruled out talks.
"It is unacceptable to say, ‘We give orders to do this (or) not to do that," Pezeshkian said. "I will not come to (negotiate with you). Do whatever the hell you want!"
Faced with deepening economic malaise wrought by US-led sanctions, Pezeshkian had repeatedly advocated for talks with Washington to chip away at Iran's isolation and mitigate deepening financial pain which threatens unrest.
Khamenei, Iran's top decision-maker, has repeatedly rejected the notion after insisting the United States cannot be trusted.
The European Union's top diplomat on Tuesday called for an international nuclear deal with Iran along the lines of a 2015 agreement, days after US President Donald Trump mooted military action to dismantle it.
High Representative Kaja Kallas's remarks signal an important policy statement by the bloc after Washington and Tehran jousted over whether the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from which Trump withdrew in his first term can be a basis for a renewed agreement.
"The constant expansion of Iran’s nuclear programme fully contradicts Iran’s own commitments as endorsed by the Security Council," Kallas said at a United Nations Security Council session on EU-UN cooperation.
"At the same time, a multilateral approach, like the JCPOA was, is key. There is no sustainable alternative to a diplomatic solution."
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon but the UN's nuclear watchdog last week pointed to a sharp rise in Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The United States and European Union said Iran's activities serve no credible civilian purpose and demanded it immediately desist.
Trump said on Thursday that Tehran would need to ditch a nuclear program much of the West views as a precursor to building nuclear weapons or face military force.
The hawkish US president has not specified whether the JCPOA, from which he withdrew in his first term after bashing it as too lenient, would be the basis of the talks or whether he sought any international buy-in for a new deal.
Rejecting the idea of a renewed agreement, the Revolutionary Guards' Tasnim news agency said a deal already existed in the form of the JCPOA.
Iran's ally Russia has said it is willing to mediate and Moscow's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog said on Monday that the JCPOA remains the essential foundation for any future negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
Kallas went on to criticize Iran's aid to Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"Russia has brought others – North Korea, Iran – to support its colonial battle too."
"Iran’s military support to Russia, including the delivery of ballistic missiles, is a major threat to international security," she added.
The recent admission by a former Revolutionary Guards minister about orchestrating the killing of dissidents on European soil in the 1980s and 1990s shed light on Tehran's ruthless suppression of opponents abroad.
In a video interview published by Didehban-e Iran, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, a founding member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its minister from 1980 to 1999, described his role in funding covert operations abroad. His statements indicated that Iran was directly involved in orchestrating political assassinations beyond its borders.
His office in a statement on Monday attributed the shock admissions to his mental debilitation after a brain surgery despite the release of a hitherto unpublished segment of another video interview in 2018 in which Refiqdoost had made similar claims.
Political implications and reactions
Iranian-Canadian political analyst Shahir Sahidsaless speculated in an X post on Tuesday that Rafiqdoost’s admission to multiple assassinations could not have been “accidental, inadvertent, or unplanned.” He suggested that these revelations are tied to Iran-US negotiations and potential sanctions relief. According to Sahidsaless, the IRGC, which holds significant economic power in Iran, benefits from ongoing sanctions and may be attempting to undermine diplomatic efforts by confirming Iran’s involvement in assassinations.
"Rafiqdoost's confessions are deliberately intended to block any possibility of negotiations [with the United States] and the lifting of sanctions," Sahidsaless wrote. He argued that assassinations in the West go beyond Iran's support for militant groups, a longstanding point of contention with Western governments. These admissions, he said, amount to an acknowledgment that the government has directly ordered and carried out killings abroad.
Thus far, European governments and the United States have not responded to these claims. Sahidsaless speculated that the lack of immediate reaction might be due to ongoing diplomatic considerations, including US efforts to engage with Tehran.
Possible diplomatic fallout
Sahidsaless warned that this controversy could lead to intensified international pressure on Iran, including the formal designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization in Europe and strengthened European support for US-imposed sanctions. If negotiations fail and Iran persists in advancing its nuclear program, these admissions could provide further justification for punitive measures.
Ahmad Bakhshayesh, a conservative member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, similarly referred to the importance of the timing and impact of Rafiqdoost’s controversial interview. “Foreign [powers] will take this as a true statement,” Bakhshayesh told the Iranian Labour News Agency on Monday.
While acknowledging that Rafiqdoost’s claims might contain some truth, he criticized the general for discussing classified matters at a time when Iran is under maximum pressure. “This is injustice to the country, especially in the current circumstances that we are under maximum pressure.”
Who were the victims?
According to Rafiqdoost, the victims included dissidents as well as high-profile figures such as Shapour Bakhtiar, Iran's last prime minister under the Shah, who was assassinated in Paris in 1991, and General Gholam-Ali Oveissi, the chief commander of the Imperial Iranian Armed Forces, who was killed in Paris in 1984.
“The Basque separatist group in Spain carried out these assassinations for us. We paid them, and they conducted the killings on our behalf,” he said.
Rafiqdoost’s admissions could be potentially used by the families of victims in European courts as evidence if they choose to sue the Islamic Republic as a sponsor of terrorism.
Hossein Mousavian, Iran’s former ambassador to Germany (1990–1997) and a senior nuclear negotiator, tweeted that he was :stunned, amazed and shocked" by the revelations, particularly regarding the killing of dissident artist Fereydun Farrokhzad in Munich in the 1990s. However, Mousavian himself has long faced allegations of involvement in Iran’s overseas assassination campaigns. Opposition groups have accused him of orchestrating over 20 assassinations in Europe, including the notorious Mykonos restaurant killings in Berlin in 1992, where four Kurdish leaders were murdered by Iranian agents.
Iran's First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said Tehran will not seek permission from any country for its nuclear activities, while rejecting allegations that it is pursuing nuclear weapons.
"We neither take orders nor seek permission regarding our nuclear technology," Aref said on Tuesday.
He said that Iran's nuclear program is focused on peaceful development and guided by religious principles, pointing out that Iran abides by the Supreme Leader’s fatwa (religious decree) prohibiting the development of nuclear weapons.
“If a fatwa prohibits nuclear weapons development and permits peaceful nuclear technology, all state institutions will comply," he said.
In an October 2019 speech, Khamenei said that building and maintaining nuclear weapons is "absolutely haram," meaning strictly forbidden under Islamic law.
Several officials have in the last year hinted at Iran's nuclear capabilities. Last April, after Iran's inaugural aerial barrage on Israel, a senior IRGC commander warned that Tehran could change its nuclear policies if Israel continues to threaten to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
Ahmad Haghtalab, who is in charge of the security of Iran’s nuclear sites, said: “If the Zionist regime wants to use the threat of attacking nuclear sites to put pressure on Iran, it is possible and conceivable for the Islamic Republic to revise its nuclear doctrine and policies, and deviate from its past declared considerations."
Just this week, Iran's foreign minister said the country’s nuclear program cannot be destroyed by military means, citing the program's widespread dispersion and robust protection.
During an interview at the Iranian consulate in Jeddah on Friday, Abbas Araghchi told AFP, “Iran's nuclear program cannot be destroyed through military operations" because the technology is ingrained, facilities are dispersed and protected, and Iran would retaliate proportionally.
While Iran denies receiving a letter from President Donald Trump demanding nuclear talks, statements by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the foreign ministry and Iran's UN ambassador Saeed Iravani appear to be responses to it.
The officials' statements suggest that the letter or message contained a mix of carrots and sticks. They also indicate that Iran may be open to Trump’s proposals, provided the talks remain strictly focused on the nuclear issue, as Iravani stated.
Iravani further suggested that Iran can take part in talks with America only to convince Washington that its nuclear program is peaceful.
At another level, media, commentators, and politicians seem perplexed by Trump’s approach. As political analyst Ali Bigdeli told the pro-reform daily Arman Melli, “Trump’s statements about Iran have confused everyone.” He added that “Trump disregards diplomatic protocols and seeks to stage a show of power.”
“He wants to overwhelm the other side, leaving them uncertain about how to respond,” Bigdeli said. Given this, he suggested that Iran might be better off using European mediators rather than engaging with Trump directly.
At the same time, in a commentary in the reformist daily Shargh, Iran's former ambassador to Riyadh Mohammad Hosseini has predicted that "the possibility of a military attack by the United States and Israel on Iran is serious and highly likely in the near future."
Hosseini outlined 10 reasons and indicators suggesting that an attack on Iran is imminent. These include the shared Israeli and US assessment of a shifting balance of power in the region, Iran’s declining ability to respond to threats, and officials in both countries recognizing the weakening ties between the Iranian people and their government.
Hosseini added that Israel and the United States recognize Iran has accelerated uranium enrichment to weaponization levels. He also noted that both countries are aware of Iran’s loss of strategic depth in the region and the likelihood that Russia could use Iran as a bargaining chip in negotiations over Ukraine.
Ali Hossein Ghazizadeh, London-based Iran International analyst, said that Trump understands Iranians will not agree to negotiations under pressure, yet he insists on talks solely to demonstrate that Iran is unwilling to engage.
Meanwhile, former diplomat Fereydoun Majlesi told local media that IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi is concerned about the possible weaponization of Tehran's nuclear program. Another concern for the West is nuclear proliferation in the region as a result of regional countries' rivalry with Iran.
He noted that the United Arab Emirates has already built a nuclear power plant, and Turkey and Saudi Arabia may also be encouraged to develop their own nuclear programs. Majlesi added that Grossi recognizes Iran's ability to effectively circumvent US economic sanctions, making it less likely to abandon enrichment. He quoted Grossi as saying that Iran’s nuclear program has gained new momentum since the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.
Former chairman of the Iranian parliament's foreign relations committee, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, told the conservative Nameh News website that Trump's threats against Iran are mere "bluffs" and that now is not the right time for Iran to negotiate with him.
State TV commentator Hassan Hanizadeh also dismissed Trump's "war or negotiation" rhetoric as "empty threats," arguing that Trump has no real intention of negotiating with Iran.
Meanwhile, Iran's former chief diplomat in London, Jalal Sadatian, told Nameh News that while Trump might soften his stance on Iran’s nuclear program, he is unlikely to change his broader approach to dealing with Iran.
The United Nations Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Wednesday over Iran's growing stock of nearly weapons grade uranium, diplomats said on Monday.
Six UN Security Council members—France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain, and the US—called for the urgent meeting to discuss Iran's non-compliance with IAEA requests for information on undeclared nuclear material, the sources said.
They want Iran to provide the UN watchdog with "the information necessary to clarify outstanding issues related to undeclared nuclear material detected at multiple locations in Iran," diplomats said.
The request also calls for discussions on Iran's obligations under its safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
The IAEA has warned of Iran’s rapid uranium enrichment to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level.
Western states argue that uranium enrichment to such high levels is unjustifiable for civilian purposes and unprecedented outside of nuclear weapons programs.
Tehran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s UN mission has not commented on the news.
In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia, and China, trading sanctions relief for nuclear program restrictions.
The US withdrew from the JCPOA in 2018 under President Trump, prompting Iran to scale back its commitments.
Britain, France, and Germany have informed the UN Security Council of their readiness to trigger a "snapback" of international sanctions to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a measure they will lose the ability to enact on October 18th.
Trump has instructed his UN envoy to collaborate with allies on reimposing sanctions.
On Monday, Moscow's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog said that the JCPOA remains the cornerstone for future Iran nuclear talks.
Speaking to Izvestia, Mikhail Ulyanov warned that the current deadlock risks uncontrolled escalation, emphasizing the JCPOA's irreplaceable role as a starting point for new negotiations, despite its "half-disassembled state" and IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi, calling JCPOA "an empty shell" last month.
