'Who are you to decide...': Iran's Khamenei rejects Trump's proposal for new nuclear deal

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday firmly rejected a key U.S. demand to end uranium enrichment, declaring it “100% against the country’s interests” and dismissing Washington’s push for a new nuclear agreement.

“The proposal that the Americans have presented is 100% against our interests … The rude and arrogant leaders of America repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear programme. Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?,” Reuters quoted Khamenei as saying during a televised speech marking the anniversary of the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

His remarks come in response to a new US proposal presented to Tehran via Oman on Saturday, part of ongoing talks involving Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff.

After five rounds of negotiations, the talks remain deadlocked over core issues—chiefly, Iran’s insistence on continuing uranium enrichment on its own soil and its refusal to ship out its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which Western powers see as a potential path to nuclear weapons.

Khamenei, who holds final authority over state matters, did not call off the negotiations but strongly criticised the American stance. He said the US proposal contradicts Iran’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of “We Can.”

“Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear programme, and the enemies have focused on the enrichment,” he said.

Tehran says it wants to master nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied accusations by Western powers that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

‘Maximum pressure’

Reuters reported on Monday that Tehran was poised to reject the US proposal as a “non-starter” that failed to soften Washington’s stance on uranium enrichment or to address Tehran’s interests.

Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran since his return to the White House in January, which included tightening sanctions and threatening to bomb Iran if the negotiations yield no deal.

Trump wants to curtail Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. Iran’s clerical establishment, for its part, wants to be rid of devastating sanctions.

During his first term, Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy. Iran responded by escalating enrichment far beyond the pact’s limits.

Iran’s clerical establishment is grappling with multiple crises — energy and water shortages, a plunging currency, losses among regional militia proxies in conflicts with Israel, and rising fears of an Israeli strike on its nuclear sites — all intensified by Trump’s hardline stance.

Iran’s arch-foe Israel, which sees Tehran’s nuclear programme as an existential threat, has repeatedly threatened to bomb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Tehran has vowed a harsh response.

With inputs from agencies