Tehran [Iran], October 21 : Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected US President Donald Trump's offer to restart nuclear talks, dismissing Trump's claim that the US destroyed Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Iranian state media IRNA on Tuesday criticised the US for its "interventionist and bullying stance" on Iran's nuclear program.
Khamenei referred to Trump's claim about the "obliteration" of Iran's nuclear facilities in airstrikes by Washington and Tel Aviv during the 12-day war of aggression launched by Israel in June this year.
"Keep dreaming. But who are you, anyway, to set dos and don'ts for a country simply because it possesses a nuclear industry? What does it have to do with the United States whether Iran has nuclear capabilities or not? Such interference is inappropriate, wrong, and bullying," Ayatollah Khamenei was cited as saying by IRNA.
Iran's supreme leader further took a jibe at Trump, stating, "If he is truly powerful, let him calm the millions of people in all US states who are chanting against him."
Meanwhile, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, criticised Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski over his "baseless claims and meddlesome remarks" against the Islamic Republic.
Araghchi made the comments in Polish on X, one day after Sikorski alleged that Iran was selling drones to Russia for use in the Ukraine war.
According to Iranian state media, on October 14, Sikorski participated in an anti-Iran presentation at the UK Parliament in cooperation with a US-Israeli-affiliated group, displaying the wreckage of what they claimed to be an Iranian-made drone used by Russia in its war in Ukraine. Subsequently, Iran summoned Poland's charge d'affaires in Tehran to protest Sikorski's involvement in the anti-Iran event.
Recently, Iran announced that it was no longer bound by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015, under which international sanctions were lifted in exchange for limitations on Tehran's nuclear programme.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had, in a statement, said all UN sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program would officially expire when Resolution 2231 expires on October 18.
In 2018, during his first term as president, Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the deal and reinstated sanctions.
Recently, in his address to the Israeli Parliament, Trump said, "Yet even to Iran, whose regime has inflicted so much death on the Middle East, the hand of friendship and cooperation is open."
"I'm telling you, they want to make a deal. That's all I do in my life. I make deals, I'm good at it," the US President said.
"Neither the United States nor Israel bear the people of Iran any hostility. We merely want to live in peace," Trump said.
"We don't want any looming threats over our heads, and we don't want to even think in terms of nuclear destruction. But I'm gonna say this, that we are ready when you are. And it will be the best decision that Iran has ever made. And it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen," Trump said.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor