The “supreme leader” of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proclaimed in a speech Wednesday that uranium enrichment is “key” for Iran and indicated the country would not accept any limits on this practice, boasting that America “cannot do a damn thing” about it.
Khamenei’s remarks – made during a speech to honor the dead founder of the Iranian terror state, Ruhollah Khomeini – occur as Iran is believed to be reviewing a first draft of a nuclear agreement from the United States. President Donald Trump initiated talks with Tehran this year in pursuit of an agreement to replace the doomed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear agreement spearheaded by former President Barack Obama which Iran regularly violated. President Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 in protest of Iran’s repeated disrespect for the provisions of the deal.
American and Iranian diplomats have engaged in five rounds of talks since April, mediated by the government of Oman. Trump administration officials state that the objective of the talks is to get Iran to commit to ending its illicit nuclear weapons development; Tehran denies any such development is occurring and claims the goal is to convince America to lift sanctions on its economy.
Uranium enrichment has emerged as the issue of highest contention in these discussions, according to public statements by officials on both sides. The United Nations nuclear watchdog office, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has repeatedly warned that Iran is not abiding by international law regarding inspections of nuclear sites and is enriching uranium at a pace that is unnecessary for peaceful nuclear development. In a report revealed by news agencies last week, the IAEA estimated that Iran “now possesses over 400kg of uranium enriched to 60% purity – well above the level used for civilian purposes and close to weapons grade, and a near 50% increase in three months.”
“Iran has produced highly enriched uranium at a rate equivalent to roughly one nuclear weapon per month over the past three months, the report found,” according to the BBC.
“The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran … is of serious concern,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi reportedly wrote.
Iranian officials have rejected condemnation of its enrichment, claiming that producing nuclear weapons material is a “natural right” of the country’s and that a non-existent “fatwa” ensures the material will not be used to build a bomb. Khamenei, in his speech on Wednesday, indicated that he no longer cared to assure the United States or international actors that Iran would not build a nuclear weapon.
“The first word of the US is that Iran should not have a nuclear industry and should rely on the United States,” Khamenei said, according to the Iranian propaganda site PressTV.
“Our response to the US’ nonsense is clear: they cannot do a damn thing in this matter,” he declared. “Uranium enrichment is the key to the nuclear issue, and the enemies have also put their fingers on enrichment.”
“Why are you interfering?” Khamenei reportedly asked. “Whether Iran has enrichment or not, what does it matter to you? Who are you?”
“National independence means that the country should not wait for the green or red light from the United States and its ilk; a key element of national independence is the principle of ‘we can’,” he continued. “In the nuclear issue, the US plan is 100% against ‘we can.’”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Khamenei reportedly celebrated his predecessor Khomeini for allegedly crushing American international influence.
“The leader of our revolution is a great man whose presence in the world is still tangible after thirty-odd years since his passing,” PressTV quoted him as saying. “The sharp decline in America’s position in the world is due to his presence, and hatred of Zionists [Israel] is due to his revolution.”
Reinforcing Khamenei’s statements, Iranian political adviser Ali Shamkhnai reportedly stated on the Hezbollah-affiliated propaganda network al-Mayadeen that Iran “will never relinquish its natural rights.” Shamkhnai confirmed that the Iranian government was “reviewing” an initial proposal from the Americans and is expected to draft a “counter-proposal” in the near future, but reportedly did not provide a concrete timeline.
According to PressTV, Shamkhnai was disparaging of the American deal, referring to it as poorly thought out and not addressing Iran’s core demand, sanctions relief.
“There is no mention whatsoever of lifting sanctions in the latest American proposal, even though the issue of sanctions is a fundamental matter for Iran,” he reportedly said.
Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, who has led the talks with the American delegation, also insisted again on Wednesday that Iran under no circumstances would accept limits on its enrichment.
“Iran has paid dearly for these capabilities, and there is no scenario in which we will give up on the patriots who made our dream come true,” Araghchi said on social media. “No enrichment, no deal.”
Neither side has clarified how any agreement may be possible if Iran does not concede to ending its illicit uranium enrichment – or if America does not lift sanctions on the rogue terror state. Trump’s Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, Araghchi’s counterpart in the talks, has described enrichment as a “red line” for the U.S. negotiators.
“An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line,” he told Breitbart News in an interview in May. “We believe that they cannot have enrichment, they cannot have centrifuges, they cannot have anything that allows them to build a weapon. We believe in all of that.”
Similarly, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said in interviews that Iran’s demand to be “the only non-weapon country in the world that’s enriching uranium” is unreasonable.
“Iran simply needs to say, we’ve agreed to no longer enrich, we’re going to have reactors because we want nuclear energy, and we’re going to import enriched uranium,” Rubio listed in an interview in May.
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