As diplomatic teams prepare to head to Geneva for a high-stakes Tuesday summit, the Iranian leadership has issued a defiant and aggressive response to President Donald Trump’s recent ultimatum. General Mousavi, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, labeled Trump’s recent demands as "reckless" and unbefitting of a world leader. While the U.S. has pushed for a swift deal to curb nuclear activity, Tehran has signaled that it has no intention of backing down on its core capabilities. In a series of coordinated statements from the military, parliament, and state media, Iran has made it clear that while it is willing to discuss economic cooperation, its uranium enrichment program andmissile stockpiles are non-negotiable. Furthermore, the regime has warned that any attempt to resolve the standoff through force will result in a regional war that will bypass Iran’s borders and shatter the stability of the global energy market for years to come.
Ebrahim Rezai, the spokesperson for the Iranian Parliament's National Security Committee, stated firmly on Sunday that the Geneva talks will not include concessions on nuclear fuel. "In the round of negotiations in Geneva, we will not discuss stopping or giving up uranium enrichment, and there is no intention to remove Iran's nuclear stockpiles from the country," Rezai said. He claimed that these points were already accepted by the Americans and are entirely separate from regional issues or missile development. According to Rezai, the "Zionist regime" remains the central problem in the region and should be dealt with in a separate framework with neighboring countries.
...The article explained that while a blocked shipping lane can be reopened quickly, the destruction of refineries takes years and billions of dollars to repair. In such a scenario, the global market would face a prolonged oil shortage that would cripple the economies of both Western and regional powers. Citing the failures of Western military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war against terrorists in Gaza, the Iranian press argued that military superiority does not guarantee victory. Instead, an attack on Iran would only "strengthen the discourse of resistance" and unite actors opposed to Western hegemony, turning a regional war into a permanent global crisis. (Read More)
