Iran, US talks enter technical phase - state TV

“The US president said in one of his recent remarks that for 47 years America has been unable to eliminate the Islamic Republic; he complained about it to his own people. For 47 years, America has not been able to eliminate the Islamic Republic. That is a good admission,” Khamenei said at a meeting with people from East Azarbaijan province on Tuesday. “I say: You, too, will not be able to do this.”

His comments come days after Trump said regime change “would be the best thing that could happen.”

Khamenei also addressed repeated remarks by the US president that the American military is the strongest in the world.

“The strongest army in the world may at times receive such a slap that it cannot rise,” he said.

“They keep saying we have sent an aircraft carrier toward Iran. Very well, an aircraft carrier is a dangerous device, but more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea.”

His remarks come amid heightened rhetoric between Tehran and Washington over military deployments and regional security and at the time a new round of negotiations mediated by Oman is underway in Geneva.

January protest remarks

In the same speech, Khamenei said those killed during the January protests are mourned as martyrs, dividing the dead into three groups and excluding what he described as “ringleaders and armed actors.”

“We are grieving. I say we are in mourning for the blood that was shed,” he said. “The circle of our fallen, whom we count as martyrs, is a wide one.”

Khamenei categorized the dead as security forces, bystanders and what he called “misled participants.”

He said, "only the instigators of sedition and the ringleaders and those who took money and weapons from the enemy” fall outside that circle.

He concluded by offering prayers for mercy and forgiveness for those he described as misled participants, framing the uprising as an enemy-driven plot rather than a domestic protest movement.

People carrying Iran’s pre-1979 “Lion and Sun” national flags gathered near the United Nations office in Geneva on Tuesday as a second round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran took place in the city.

Iran has come to nuclear talks in Geneva with “genuine, constructive proposals,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The official said Iran’s approach to the negotiations with the United States was “positive and serious,” but added that Tehran had no preconceptions about the outcome.

“The key to sustaining effective talks is US seriousness on lifting sanctions and avoiding unrealistic demands,” the official said.

Indirect talks between the two sides were due to begin in Geneva later on Tuesday.

A senior Iranian MP said on Tuesday that Iran previously did not allow the IAEA to inspect its nuclear facilities because Rafael Grossi, the agency’s director general, had not fulfilled his duties and “needed to be punished.”

Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Grossi had not condemned attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and “it was only natural for us not to allow inspections.”

The member of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee added that Iran has now agreed to allow inspections to demonstrate that its nuclear activities remain peaceful and within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a decision made by the Supreme National Security Council, according to Boroujerdi.

Iran and the United States will speak separately with Oman’s foreign minister during their indirect nuclear talks, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Tuesday on state television IRIB.

Baghaei said the format would mirror the previous round, with the Omani foreign minister relaying messages between the two sides.

He said the discussions would focus on nuclear issues.

Baghaei added that, similar to Iran, the United States would also hold talks with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi.

The delegations were about to depart for the venue of the negotiations, he said.