No rift with Supreme Leader on US talks, Iran’s presidential aide says
Iranian President (third left) during a meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior officials in Tehran, March 2025
A senior aide to the Iranian president said on Sunday that conditions were not currently suitable for negotiations with the United States, while stressing that any such decision would follow a process involving Iran’s leadership and top security bodies.
“In the current situation, the conditions for negotiations with the United States are not ready,” said Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy for communications and information at the president’s office, in an interview with Iranian media.
“Today this possibility does not exist, but 40 days from now, when the president is in New York, the situation may be different. We live in a state of uncertainty,” he said, referring to President Masoud Pezeshkian’s upcoming visit for the UN General Assembly in late September.
Tabatabaei added that any decision on talks with Washington would not rest solely with the government and would require final approval from the Supreme Leader.
“The considerations of the Supreme National Security Council are always taken into account, but its resolutions only gain effect when approved by the Supreme Leader.”
He added that Iran’s president, who also heads the Supreme National Security Council, remains bound by the authority of Ali Khamenei.
“In the case of the president, there is complete alignment and obedience to the considerations, strategies and views of the Supreme Leader,” he said.
Asked whether there had been differences in the past, Tabatabaei said, “At one point, the president’s view was to negotiate, but the Supreme Leader was not in agreement. The president said that the Supreme Leader’s opinion comes first, even if it is against his own view. Later, when conditions changed, the decision for negotiations also changed, and the government implemented it.”
“If conditions remain as they are now, no, there will be no talks. But it is not possible to rule out changes by then,” he said.
Tabatabaei also rejected suggestions of division within the leadership over Iran’s foreign policy, saying, “The coordination that exists today between the branches of government and the Supreme Leader is extraordinary. This unity of view and trust helped the country overcome the recent aggression by the Zionist regime and the United States.”
According to a recent report by Reuters, Supreme Leader and the country’s power structure have reached a consensus to resume nuclear negotiations with the United States, viewing them as vital to the Islamic Republic’s survival.
Amid deteriorating ties with Europe and the looming threat of another war with Israel, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian is under mounting attack from Tehran’s hardliners, who question both his competence and his political judgment.
Washington is not capable of launching another military conflict against Iran and is constrained by the risks of soaring energy prices, a senior cleric in the Office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Friday.
“Today, there is talk about the possible resumption of a military war, but it seems the enemy does not have the capability to attack again and fears Iran’s power. The Americans also fear the prospect of $150 oil and cannot endure such a situation,” said Ali Saidi.
“While evidence shows no immediate threat, the armed forces must remain on alert and strengthen their communications.”
“If the United States realizes it cannot defeat the Islamic Republic through war and then seeks negotiations, we will respond positively. But if they negotiate to prepare for the next war, it will be of no benefit to us,” he told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen.
France, the United Kingdom, and Germany have separately warned Iran they will reinstate UN sanctions unless Tehran reopens nuclear talks and produces tangible results by the end of August.
Earlier negotiations under the Trump administration collapsed when Israel launched military strikes on June 13, one day after a 60-day ultimatum expired. On the ninth day of the conflict, the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities, which US President Donald Trump said had “obliterated” the program.
Washington has outsourced its Iran policy to Israel following the 12-day war, former Obama-era negotiator Alan Eyre told Iran International, warning that the Trump administration now sees Iran's nuclear issue as resolved despite the remaining risks.
On June 22, the United States joined Israel’s campaign against Iran and carried out airstrikes on its key nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
"President Trump said the [Iranian] nuclear program is obliterated. They seem to have put it in the ‘mission accomplished’ category,” Eyre told Iran International's podcast, Eye for Iran.
Under Obama, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman worked closely with world powers to keep the 2015 nuclear deal alive, balancing many interests through complex diplomacy — a sharp contrast to today’s one-track coordination with Israel, Eyre said.
"There’s pretty much one person in the foreign affairs who he is coordinating with, and that’s Prime Minister Netanyahu," Eyre said, "The gentleman in charge, Mr. Witkoff, has a lot of other stuff on his plate to include Gaza and Ukraine. We’re really not paying any attention to the Iran portfolio. We have sort of outsourced it to Israel.”
Signals of a renewed fight
Tehran’s decision to revive its Supreme Defense Council — a wartime command body not convened since the Iran–Iraq War — is widely seen as a signal it expects the ceasefire with Israel to be temporary.
The move suggests Iranian leaders are bracing for renewed conflict and working to reestablish what Eyre described as “some type of strategic deterrence,” from rebuilding air defenses to restoring missile and nuclear capabilities.
Weakened by war and diplomatic deadlock, Iran’s clerical elite faces a stark choice: defy pressure to halt its nuclear activity and risk further Israeli and US attack or concede and risk a leadership fracture.
A fragile ceasefire ended the 12-day war in June. Both sides claimed victory, but the war exposed vulnerabilities and punctured Iran’s image of deterrence.
Three Iranian insiders told Reuters the political establishment now views nuclear negotiations with Washington as the only way to avoid further escalation and existential peril. The Israeli strikes began just a day before a planned sixth round of talks with the US.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iran’s political leadership have agreed in principle to resume nuclear talks with Washington, seeing diplomacy as essential to preventing further US–Israeli strikes.
Britain, France, and Germany have warned they are prepared to trigger the UN’s “snapback” sanctions mechanism if Iran does not return to talks by the end of August.
Eyre said that even after the attacks, Iran retains the industrial capacity, enriched uranium, and technical knowledge to produce a nuclear weapon if it chooses.
“The fork in the road now is — does it try to reconstitute what it had before, or does it try something else… like moving toward a nuclear weapon?” he said.
Israel and the US could launch a new war if Iran attempts to resume uranium enrichment, a former Iranian official warned Friday, less than two months after a US-brokered truce ended a 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
“Enrichment without an agreement means war—and even with an agreement, it is currently impractical,” Qassem Mohebali, former director general for the Middle East and North Africa at Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Rouydad 24 website.
"The only solution is to temporarily suspend this right until a deal is reached.”
Last month, Iran's foreign minister insisted Tehran would not give up enrichment and the United States has no way to end it militarily, after US President Donald Trump vowed to wipe out Iran's nuclear sites again if it revived its activities.
"All should know that we Iranians have NOT BOUGHT our PEACEFUL nuclear program; we have BUILT IT WITH BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS," Araghchi posted on X in late July.
"They still talk about enrichment. I mean, who would do that? You just come out of something that's so bad, and they talk about, we want to continue enrichment. Who would say that? How stupid can you be to say that?" Trump said.
Is enrichment Iran's right?
While Iran insists that enrichment is its right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Mohebali says the right to enrichment and its actual implementation are different.
"The NPT doesn’t explicitly grant a ‘right to enrichment’, it only permits peaceful nuclear technology use, which doesn’t necessarily include enrichment."
“Iran could be granted this right but choose not to exercise it until an agreement is reached. At present, enrichment seems neither feasible nor open for discussion,” Mohebali added.
On June 22, Trump ordered airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Esfahan, and Natanz, capping off a surprise Israeli military campaign that killed hundreds of people, including military personnel, nuclear scientists, and civilians.
Mohebali also warned that Iran's failure to reach a deal with world powers over its disputed nuclear program may lead to the return of UN sanctions which could itself escalate tensions.
“The return of UN Security Council sanctions—particularly Resolution 1929—would allow the United States, Israel, and Europe to impose official sanctions and carry out actions such as inspecting planes, ships, trains, or individuals. Such actions could themselves lead to war,” he said.
Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence issued secret guidance warning this week to ministries and major companies to prepare for the likely return of punishing United Nations sanctions.
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have warned that they are prepared to trigger the so-called “snapback” mechanism by the end of August if Tehran fails to reach a diplomatic solution.
The snapback mechanism, part of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), allows any party to the accord to file a complaint accusing Iran of non-compliance.
If no resolution is reached within 30 days, all previous UN sanctions would automatically “snap back,” including arms embargoes, cargo inspections, and missile restrictions.
Israeli defense forces are accelerating plans to strengthen the country’s advanced defense capabilities in anticipation of a new wave of missile attacks from Iran or its Yemeni proxy forces, Walla News reported on Friday.
Director General of the Defense Ministry, Major General Amir Baram, has ordered the expedited development and production of air defense systems, including the Arrow 3, Arrow 4, Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and a ground-based laser system, according to the report.
The directive also covers additional ground-based laser systems, various radar systems, and other classified technologies.
Each of these defense systems covers different capabilities. The Iron Dome is a short-range system that intercepts rockets and artillery shells with a range of 4-70 km (2-43 miles). It uses radar to detect and track threats, and its interceptors destroy them mid-air.
Arrow 3 and Arrow 4 are long-range ballistic missile defense systems. Arrow 2 intercepts missiles in the upper atmosphere, while Arrow 3 targets them in space, making it effective against threats such as Iran’s ballistic missiles.
David’s Sling is a medium-range defense, intercepts tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones (40-300 km, 24-186 miles range).
On Thursday, Israel’s military chief said the army is prepared to launch more strikes on Iran if necessary, after what he described as a successful preemptive war in June that halted an emerging existential threat to Israel.
Baram’s order follows continued missile launches by Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen and also speculations about the resumption of the June war between Iran and Israel.
Investigations into Iranian missile strikes on Israel—particularly those in the final hours before the ceasefire—are a focus of the air defense unit’s current assessments, the Walla News report said.
The last missile salvo against Israel occurred on June 24, when Iran fired six barrages totaling 20 ballistic missiles. Israel said most were intercepted, but some hit targets, including an apartment complex in Beersheba.
Baram’s directive places strong emphasis on cooperation with the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). Israel officially became part of CENTCOM’s area of responsibility in 2021.
Israel launched a surprise military campaign on June 13 targeting military and nuclear sites, assassinating senior Iranian commanders, and killing hundreds of civilians.
The chief of staff to Iran's president said Israel’s attack on a Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) meeting on June 16 was a targeted attempt to kill Masoud Pezeshkian, who escaped with a minor injury.
On the fourth day of the Israeli 12-day war on Iran, the SNSC meeting attended by the heads of Iran’s three branches of power was hit by six bombs or missiles. Iranian state media later reported that President Pezeshkian and some other officials sustained minor leg injuries when trying to flee.
“I immediately ran out of the meeting and saw Pezeshkian walking about four meters away. He was on his feet, with a slight injury to his leg,” Mohsen Haji-Mirzaei, chief of staff to the Iranian president, said in an interview aired by the state TV on Friday.
He said that despite his injured leg, President Pezeshkian took a shower that day and met with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The next day, he visited a doctor to drain a swollen hematoma from his leg.
“Israel had a calculated plan to kill Pezeshkian, but God did not will his death,” Haji-Mirzaei said.
Israel targeted the building’s entrances and exits with six missiles or bombs to block escape routes and cut off airflow, Revolutionary Guards affiliated Fars News reported last month.
“Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni had inhaled so much dust that he was struggling to breathe, and medics were helping him," Pezeshkian's chief of staff said.
“I saw General Mousavi (Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces) with his face and body covered in dust and his clothes torn,” Haji-Mirzaei added.
Israel launched a surprise military campaign on June 13 targeting military and nuclear sites, assassinating senior Iranian commanders and killing hundreds of civilians.
During the 12-day conflict, Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and at least 11 senior nuclear scientists. According to an Iranian government spokesperson, 1,062 Iranians were killed, including 786 military personnel and 276 civilians.
Iran retaliated with missile strikes that killed 31 civilians and one off-duty soldier. On June 22, the United States joined the campaign by carrying out airstrikes on Iran’s key nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.
A US-brokered ceasefire put an end to the conflict on June 24.