Iran’s top diplomat rejects pressure as US boosts military presence

Iran’s Foreign Minister said the country’s strength comes from resisting global powers, even as talks with the US continue. While Iran insists it will enrich uranium, Washington has increased military pressure in the region.

Dubai: Iran’s top diplomat insisted on Sunday that Tehran’s strength came from its ability to “say no to the great powers,” striking a maximalist position just after negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program and in the wake of nationwide protests.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to diplomats at a summit in Tehran, signalled that Iran would stick to its position that it must be able to enrich uranium — a major point of contention with President Donald Trump, who bombed Iranian atomic sites in June during the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

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While Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian praised the talks on Friday in Oman with the Americans as “a step forward,” Araghchi’s remarks show the challenge ahead. Already, the US moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and have the firepower necessary to strike the Islamic Republic should Trump choose to do so.

“I believe the secret of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power lies in its ability to stand against bullying, domination and pressures from others,” Araghchi said. “They fear our atomic bomb, while we are not pursuing an atomic bomb. Our atomic bomb is the power to say no to the great powers. The secret of the Islamic Republic’s power is in the power to say no to the powers.”

The “atomic bomb’ as a rhetorical device

Araghchi’s choice to explicitly use an “atomic bomb” as a rhetorical device likely wasn’t accidental. While Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful, the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Tehran had an organised military programme to seek the bomb up until 2003.

Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity, a short, technical step to weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent, the only non-weapons state to do so. Iranian officials in recent years had also been increasingly threatening that the Islamic Republic could seek the bomb, even while its diplomats have pointed to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s preachings as a binding fatwa, or religious edict, that Iran wouldn’t build one.

Pezeshkian, who ordered Araghchi to pursue talks with the Americans after likely getting Khamenei’s blessing, also wrote on X on Sunday about the talks.

“The Iran-US talks, held through the follow-up efforts of friendly governments in the region, were a step forward,” the president wrote. “Dialogue has always been our strategy for peaceful resolution. … The Iranian nation has always responded to respect with respect, but it does not tolerate the language of force.”

It remains unclear when and where, or if, there will be a second round of talks. Trump, after the talks on Friday, offered few details but said: “Iran looks like they want to make a deal very badly — as they should.”

Aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea

During Friday’s talks, US Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the American military’s Central Command, was in Oman. Cooper’s presence was likely an intentional reminder to Iran about the US military presence in the region. Cooper later accompanied US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to the Lincoln out in the Arabian Sea after the indirect negotiations.

Araghchi appeared to be taking the threat of an American military strike seriously, as many worried Iranians have in recent weeks. He noted that after multiple rounds of talks last year, the US “attacked us in the midst of negotiations.”

“If you take a step back (in negotiations), it is not clear up to where it will go,” Araghchi said.