TEHRAN – Washington appears to be persevering with its non-starter demands for a deal to de-escalate tensions with Tehran, a situation underscored by two top Iranian officials reiterating the country’s firm stance on its nuclear activities and missile range – the very weapons used in June to halt U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting Iranian infrastructure.

In April, Iran and the United States began indirect negotiations to devise a deal that would replace the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. During his first term, Trump rendered the deal defunct after announcing Washington’s withdrawal and re-imposing sanctions against Iran. He also derailed the diplomatic process he had started in his second term by helping Israel launch a 12-day war against Iran on June 13, just days before a sixth round of talks was set to take place in Oman. Last week, Trump admitted that while the U.S. publicly entered the war on Day 10 and bombed three Iranian nuclear sites, he was “pretty much in charge” of the aggression from the beginning.

It remains unclear whether the war destroyed Iran’s nuclear sites, which are located deep underground. Iranians have adopted a policy of ambiguity, and analysts suggest that even if the sites are no longer operational, the country could quickly resume its nuclear activities, given that the industry has been fully indigenized. 

Washington, however, prefers to assume Iran’s nuclear capabilities no longer exist, the Tehran Times understands. Consequently, the U.S. now insists that Iran agree to lower the range of its missiles in any new talks – a condition Iran has deemed unacceptable for years. The recent war has also made the public increasingly cautious about the potential loss of the country’s main defense weapon. On Saturday, an IRGC Aerospace official declared that ordinary citizens have been asking the military to use their money to build more missiles.

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani, who became the country’s security chief after the war, said on Monday that the United States is in no position to dictate what the range of Iranian missiles should be. “What does it have to do with the West that it comments on the range of Iran’s missiles?” he asked. “No country is entitled to interfere in the Iranian nation’s defensive power,” which is a matter of independence, Larijani added. He was speaking at the closing ceremony concluding the conference “We and the West: The Thoughts and Views of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution”. 

The security chief also asserted that Western states used Iran’s nuclear program as a pretext to pressure Tehran. This claim is supported by a previous Tehran Times report, which revealed that back in September Iran offered to transfer all its 60% enriched uranium to the West if the European trio would scrap the snapback of pre-JCPOA UN sanctions. The U.S. rejected the offer and told the Europeans to proceed with their plans. 

Iran is not giving up on its nuclear program either; Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who led Iran’s negotiating team in April, stated after a Monday visit to the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran headquarters that the country has “worked tirelessly, fought, and even shed blood” for its nuclear achievements and therefore will not abandon them, regardless of the pressure it faces.