Iran rejects any pause in enrichment after Trump moots new proposal

Sebastian Gorka, an aide to US President Trump, warned of "catastrophic consequences" for Iran's leadership if nuclear talks fail, saying the United States will not tolerate Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"The message is very clear. We will not permit Iran to maintain a nuclear weapons program,” Gorka, the National Security Council’s director of counterterrorism, told Iran International.

“And the president has likewise made clear, we will not permit Iran to continue to be the largest state sponsor of terrorism, and to fund and train and direct proxies all around the region,” he added.

"Those two things will end, or as the president has made clear, there will be catastrophic consequences for the dictatorship in Tehran."

US President Donald Trump’s team is showing flexibility on the issue of low-level uranium enrichment as part of a potential deal with Iran, Politico reported Friday, citing two unnamed European officials and a former Trump administration official.

“Trump has been led to believe that low-level enrichment isn’t a threat – this is the compromise John Kerry made in the JCPOA,” the former official was quoted as saying, referring to the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated under former president Barack Obama.

The purpose of US President Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East was to sow discord among Islamic countries, said Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf on Friday.

"His behavior and rhetoric indicated that he aimed to sow discord among Islamic countries, and in a way, by creating threats and insecurity, he sought to sell their weapons and ammunition and pursue instability in the Islamic countries of Southwest Asia," Ghalibaf said after returning from Indonesia where he attended a meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States.

Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Islamic Republic's founder Ruhollah Khomeini, criticized US President Donald Trump’s remarks comparing the progress of Arab countries in the region to that of Iran under the clerical establishment.

“Yes, you have power. But this kind of speech makes people view you with greater skepticism" amid nuclear talks with Tehran, Khomeini said.

He defended Iran’s current diplomatic approach to the US, saying, “The decision to engage in indirect negotiations with the United States was a rational one made by the country’s leadership and officials. It may succeed, or it may fail due to the other side’s unreliability.”

“But for the president of the United States to speak in such a vulgar and demeaning tone in the midst of these negotiations is unacceptable. Although this type of rhetoric has been used before, it has not been expressed as it was recently,” he added.

Iran has not received any written proposal from the United States, either directly or indirectly, and will not abandon its right to enrich uranium under any scenario, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday in a statement on X.

“The messaging we—and the world—continue to receive is confusing and contradictory,” Araghchi wrote. “Iran nonetheless remains determined and straightforward: Respect our rights and terminate your sanctions, and we have a deal.”

“Mark my words: there is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to enrichment for peaceful purposes,” he added.

Former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has called on Washington to support a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran does not agree to dismantle its program.

“Iran needs to feel maximum pressure to totally dismantle its nuclear program,” Haley wrote on X.

“That includes: Unprecedented sanctions, including on China for buying Iranian oil, which is keeping Iran’s economy afloat. Rallying our regional allies and partners to present a united front against Iranian aggression. Third and most important, making it clear that the US will support a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program if Iran doesn’t agree to end it.”

UK Foreign Office political director Christian Turner said on Friday that political directors from the UK, France, and Germany agreed with Iranian officials to hold further discussions after their meeting in Istanbul.

“We shared our commitment to dialogue, welcomed ongoing US/Iran talks, and given urgency, agreed to meet again,” Turner wrote on X, referring to the E3 group’s meeting with Iranian deputy foreign ministers.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Friday that uranium enrichment is a “definite red line” for Tehran and will not be suspended under any circumstances.

“Our negotiating partners know well that the Islamic Republic will never trade away achievements gained through the blood of martyrs and great national sacrifice,” Gharibabadi wrote on X. “The right to enrichment is our firm red line. A halt to enrichment is not acceptable.”

Tehran has not yet received the US proposal for a nuclear agreement but expects to obtain it soon, an Iranian source close to the negotiating team told Reuters.

“Oman has got it and will hand it over to Tehran soon,” the source said, referring to the written proposal presented by US officials during the fourth round of indirect talks in Muscat.

Earlier today, US President Donald Trump said that Iran has received his administration’s proposal on a nuclear deal and warned that Tehran must act fast.

A senior Iranian cleric on Friday condemned US President Donald Trump’s visit to Arab states, accusing him of stoking regional conflict through massive arms sales.

“This man, who set his ominous foot in the region, brought $149 billion worth of bombs and missiles for killing,” said Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad. “And yet we, sitting in our own home and wanting to defend ourselves, are called the threat to the region? Does he think the world has no sense?”

The United States and Saudi Arabia signed a $142 billion arms deal on Tuesday, which the White House described as the largest defense agreement in US history.