Trump says Iran standoff should end 'peacefully, not horribly'

Alarge bloc of Congressional Republicans is urging US President Donald Trump to maintain a hardline stance on Iran, calling in an open letter signed by more than 200 lawmakers for the complete dismantling of Iran's uranium enrichment technology.

All Republican senators except one, along with 177 GOP representatives, signed the letter warning against any agreement resembling the 2015 nuclear deal brokered under former President Barack Obama.

That accord, they argued, merely delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions while allowing it to continue enrichment activities under international oversight.

“The United States cannot afford another deal that gives Iran room to maneuver,” the lawmakers wrote. “The regime must be stripped of all enrichment capacity — even for peaceful energy purposes.”

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered a fiery response on Wednesday to his American counterpart’s speech in Riyadh the previous day in which Donald Trump accused Iran’s leaders of mismanagement and destabilizing the Middle East.

Pezeshkian rejected the allegations in sweeping terms, turning the blame on Washington and its allies.

“Did we kill sixty thousand women and children in Gaza within a year, under bombs and missiles? Did we cut off water, bread, and medicine from those poor people? Are we the threat?” he asked in a speech in Kermanshah in western Iran.

Referring to US arms sales to Iran's Arab neighbors, Pezeshkian said, “When they boast of having missiles and bombs beyond imagination, is it us who are causing war and bloodshed—or is it them, who flood this region with weapons and ammunition?”

“You want the countries of this region to turn on each other by handing out bombs and missiles, and then you say you’re peace-seekers?” he added.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused US President Donald Trump of seeking to destabilize regional ties after he delivered a sharply critical speech in Riyadh on Tuesday.

"The presence of a US official in our region making false accusations against the Iranian people can only be interpreted as a sign of his ill intent toward both the Iranian people and regional relations,” Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in an interview with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

In his speech, Trump pilloried Iran's leadership and praised those of its Arab neighbors.

"(It) was a deliberate move to sow division between Iran and the countries of the region,” Baghaei said.

The United States Treasury on Wednesday announced new sanctions on six Iranian and Chinese individuals along with 12 entities from the two countries it accused of supporting the ballistic missile program of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

According to the treasury, the blacklisted people and companies supported Iranian efforts to build carbon fiber materials for ballistic missiles.

“The United States cannot allow Iran to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles," secretary of the treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. "The Iranian regime’s relentless and irresponsible pursuit of advanced ballistic missile capabilities, including its efforts to indigenize its production capacity, represents an unacceptable threat to the United States and the stability of the region.”

“The United States remains strongly committed to disrupting these schemes and holding accountable those who enable Iran’s military adventurism.”

All Republican senators except one, along with 177 GOP representatives, signed the letter warning against any agreement resembling the 2015 nuclear deal brokered under former President Barack Obama.

That accord, they argued, merely delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions while allowing it to continue enrichment activities under international oversight.

“The United States cannot afford another deal that gives Iran room to maneuver,” the lawmakers wrote. “The regime must be stripped of all enrichment capacity — even for peaceful energy purposes.”

Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican who did not endorse the letter led by Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Representative August Pfluger of Texas.

Citing what they described as Iran’s expanding nuclear program, the Republicans expressed skepticism over the possibility of verifying any future agreement that permits enrichment.

“The scale of Iran’s nuclear activity today makes verification of any such deal impossible,” the letter said.

The message comes as the fourth round of US-Iran talks concluded without a breakthrough, and Trump is on a diplomatic tour of Iran's Arab neighbors.

The signatories praised Trump’s earlier decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and his administration’s “maximum pressure” policy, which reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran.

“You have rightly drawn a red line against any deal that permits uranium enrichment,” they wrote. “We stand ready to support your administration with whatever tools are necessary to protect American national security.”

Trump has said that the goal of the negotiations is to achieve "full dismantlement" of Tehran's nuclear program. However, Tehran insists that its enrichment program is not open to negotiation, but it is ready to cap the level of enrichment.