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Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fiercely opposed the latest U.S. proposal on Wednesday, which reportedly demanded zero uranium enrichment—a stance he declared was entirely against Tehran’s interests.
This week, discussions arose regarding whether the U.S. would insist on a total ban on uranium enrichment—a crucial process for both nuclear energy production and weaponization. Reports indicated that the U.S. had submitted a proposal through Omani mediators on Saturday, which might permit “low levels” of enrichment.
President Donald Trump seemed to counter this on social media earlier in the week, and on Wednesday, Khamenei, without addressing the details of the proposal, remarked that “In the ongoing nuclear negotiations facilitated by Oman, the U.S.’s offer is entirely contrary to the essence of ‘We can’.”
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, left, shakes hands with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Muscat, Oman, on April 12, 2025. (Oman News Agency/ Handout via Reuters)
The Iranian leader said on Wednesday that Iran’s nuclear development has become a source of national pride and claimed, “The number of countries in the world that have achieved a complete nuclear fuel cycle is perhaps fewer than the number of fingers on a person’s two hands.
“We’re capable of producing nuclear fuel starting from the mine and all the way to the power plant,” he added.
Iran has also repeatedly claimed it does not intend to develop a nuclear weapon, though its near-weapons-grade enrichment levels and missile program have suggested otherwise and prompted immense concern among international security officials, including the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Khamanei’s comments regarding Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon were among the most fervent he has issued and again called into question Tehran’s claims that it is not looking to make itself the 10th nuclear nation.
A big banner depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 26, 2024 on the sideline of an exhibition which marks the 44th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war. (Hossein Beris / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP, via Getty Images)
“You Americans possess atomic bombs and have the massive destruction of the world at your disposal,” he said in a series of posts on X. “What business is it of yours whether the Iranian nation should or shouldn’t have uranium enrichment or whether it should or shouldn’t have a nuclear industry?
“Why are you interfering and trying to say whether Iran should have uranium enrichment or not? That’s none of your business,” Khamanei said.
