In his State of the Nation address on Tuesday, Trump accused Tehran of “sinister nuclear ambitions” as Washington ratchets up the pressure with a massive military deployment around the Gulf.
The two enemies are due to meet for a third round of talks on Thursday in the Swiss city of Geneva, in an effort to reach a diplomatic solution.
Trump claimed that Tehran “has already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases abroad and that they are working on building missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.”
He said Iran wants to “restart” its nuclear program and is “resuming its sinister nuclear ambitions at this point.”
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Wednesday, however, denied the claims, without directly mentioning Trump.
– Whatever they claim regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles and the number of victims during the January riots, it is simply repeating ‘big lies’ – he stated on the X social networking platform.
The US president also claimed that Iranian authorities killed 32,000 people during a wave of protests that began in December and peaked on January 8 and 9.
The West believes Iran is seeking to build an atomic bomb, but Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. Trump has threatened to attack Iran if a deal is not reached.
Tehran has repeatedly said it will respond firmly to any attack, warning that even a limited strike “will be considered an act of aggression.”
– My priority is to solve this problem diplomatically, but one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism, which he really is, to have nuclear weapons – said Trump.
Hours before his speech, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said a deal to avoid military conflict was within reach.
– We have a historic opportunity to reach an unprecedented agreement that solves mutual problems and achieves mutual interests – Araghchi stated in a post on social networks, adding that the agreement “is within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority”.
Araghchi pledged that Iran “will never develop nuclear weapons under any circumstances”, but insisted on his country’s right to “use the dividends of peacetime nuclear technology”.
Iran and the US held five rounds of nuclear talks last year, but those talks ended after an unprecedented Israeli attack on Iran sparked a 12-day war, reports AFP.
(Vijesti.ba / FENA)
