Iran says any possible talks with US would focus only on nuclear issue

Rafael Grossi told the newspaper that although the IAEA has conducted roughly a dozen inspections in Iran since its June conflict with Israel, inspectors have not been allowed to access key nuclear sites -- including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan -- which were bombed during US airstrikes.

The agency chief said the IAEA was maintaining dialogue with Tehran despite “bumpy” relations but warned that Iran remained bound by its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“You cannot say, ‘I remain within the non-proliferation treaty,’ and then not comply with obligations,” Grossi was quoted as saying. “Otherwise, what I will have to do is report that I have lost all visibility of this material.”

Grossi added that while some movement had been detected near Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles in October, it did “not imply that there is activity on enrichment.” 

Iranian officials dismissed his comments at the time, accusing the IAEA of spreading “unfounded opinions.” 

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Grossi was “fully aware of the peaceful nature” of Iran’s nuclear program.

Tehran has also blamed the IAEA for allegedly giving Israel a pretext to attack its facilities, after the agency’s board voted in June to declare Iran in violation of its NPT commitments.

Western diplomats have voiced growing concern over the IAEA’s limited visibility into Iran’s nuclear activities following the strikes and subsequent restrictions on inspections. 

Speaking Monday on the anniversary of the November 4, 1979 seizure of the embassy, Khamenei described Iran’s enmity toward the United States as “existential rather than tactical,” a confrontation that cannot be resolved.

“The inherently arrogant nature of the US accepts nothing but submission,” he said. “Every US president desired this. Some concealed it, others expressed it openly. The current president has made it explicit, revealing the US’s true nature.”

For Khamenei, the threat lies not in sanctions or military pressure but in ideological erosion. America’s demands—whether over nuclear activities, missiles, or regional policy—are, to him, attempts to take away what defines the system that has become synonymous with his name.

'Victory day’

Khamenei tried to illustrate this point with both history and scripture.

“Our problem with the United States began on August 19, 1953, not November 4, 1979,” he said, invoking the CIA-backed coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh seventy-odd years ago.

On the latter date, he echoed his mentor and predecessor Ruhollah Khomeini in calling it “a day of honor and victory,” doubling down on a bet many insiders now publicly regret.

Even senior conservatives like Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, once chief inspector of the Supreme Leader’s office, have called the storming of the US embassy “a big mistake,” admitting that the ensuing hostage crisis was “the starting point” of many of Iran’s troubles.

But Khamenei is adamant that repentance equals betrayal. History, as he tells it, shows that every concession to the United States only invites more demands—a conviction hardened through experience.

Impossible conditions

When Donald Trump first took office, he declared that all he wanted from Tehran was a pledge not to pursue nuclear weapons, signaling he had no quarrel with Iran’s theocratic order.

But midway through indirect negotiations in the spring of 2025, his stance shifted toward a more conventional hardline: curbs on missiles, abandonment of regional allies, and most recently, recognition of Israel.

Khamenei’s Monday speech contained a direct reply: “If they stop supporting the Zionist regime, remove military bases from the region and cease interfering in regional affairs, these matters could potentially be reviewed,” he said, referring to calls for engagement with the United States.

The conditions were impossible by design—a reminder that what Washington calls diplomacy, he sees as ideological surrender.

‘Unconditional surrender’

Even when hinting at pragmatic concessions such as curbing enrichment, he was dismissive: “This isn’t something foreseeable for now, nor for the near future.”

Trump’s post on Truth Social in mid-October, calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” just days into Israel’s war on Iran, may have been the epitome of what Khamenei always asserted: that America seeks capitulation, not coexistence.

His answer was unambiguous: “Expecting the Iranian nation to submit, given its level of capabilities, wealth, intellectual and spiritual background and its vigilant and motivated youth, is meaningless.”

Khamenei shows no sign of repentance or retreat. To him, the struggle with the United States is not about sanctions or missiles but about identity. In his twilight, he seems as convinced as ever that the system must endure as it is, or not at all.

"Any threat against the supreme leader is waging war on God, which carries a death sentence," Ahmad Khatami, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, said in a speech in Tehran.

Omid Sarlak was found dead in a car in western Iran on Saturday, shortly after posting a video of himself burning a photo of Khamenei. Police called it a suicide, but his family said he was killed by the state.

Mourners in city of Aligoudarz on Monday chanted slogans against Khamenei during Omid’s funeral.

In recent days, some ultra-conservative figures in Iran have called for tough sentences to curb social unrest.

"The sentence for someone who rejects the hijab is execution. If the martyrs were here today, they would skin alive those who stripped themselves bare with the slogan 'Woman, Life, Freedom,'" Hassan Hassannia, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, said on Saturday.

Islamic Penal Code provisions for insulting the Islamic Republic's leader prescribe six months to two years in prison.

In the latest example of such imprisonment sentences, Forough Khosravi, a primary school teacher from Behbahan, was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the city's Revolutionary Court.

Two years of her sentence were for "insulting the leader" and two years for "insulting the founder of the Islamic Republic."

The group said the detainee, Shahham Soleimani, is about 60 years old and is being held in Ward 5 of Sheyban Prison in Ahvaz, where political prisoners are normally held, and is in poor physical condition.

The sentence was issued on Tuesday by Branch 1 of the Ahvaz Revolutionary Court under Judge Ehsan Adibi-Mehr, locally referred to by critics as the “judge of death,” according to the report.

Karun said more than 80 young men from Ahvaz were arrested in security raids after the war and transferred to Wards 5, 8 and the prison’s quarantine section, where they faced long interrogations and severe physical and psychological pressure.

It reported that detainees have been handed multi-year sentences. Charges were related to espionage and cooperation with Mossad, propaganda against the Islamic Republic and insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with travel bans and mandatory participation in “reform sessions” run by the domestic enforcement militia the Basij and the Revolutionary Guard.

Last month, Iran executed a man convicted of allegedly spying for Israel’s Mossad, bringing the total number of those executed this year on such charges to 12.

In September, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said the country had executed 11 individuals on espionage charges this year, with at least nine carried out after Israel's military strike on Iran on June 13.

“The attack and seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran marked the beginning of countless violations of international law and the Iranian regime’s refusal to accept diplomacy,” the State Department’s Persian-language account said in a post on X.

On November 4, 1979, pro-Islamic Republic students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats and staff hostage for 444 days, leading to the rupture of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington that have never been restored.

The State Department’s post said the embassy takeover began “a long pattern of ignoring the rights of other nations and interfering in their affairs,” reflecting “the same disregard for fundamental rights and freedoms that today defines this regime’s behavior toward its own people.”

It added that the United States “remains determined to promote diplomacy, accountability, and the aspirations of the Iranian people for a brighter future.”

The statement comes as Iran marked the anniversary with state-organized rallies across the country earlier in the day.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei doubled down on his hard line backing the takeover in a speech on Monday.

"The people took to the streets, and part of these demonstrations and popular movements, with student participation, led to the seizure of the US embassy,” he said. "The US embassy was the center of conspiracies and plotting to destroy the Islamic Revolution.”

Crowds gathered across the country waving national flags and portraits of Iran’s leaders to observe what officials call the National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance.

In Tehran, effigies of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being hanged were displayed during the state sponsored rally.