Trump says Iran has not yet pledged to abandon nuclear arms

Turkey is reviewing possible actions should tensions between neighboring Iran and the United States escalate into conflict, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters.

The source said Ankara was assessing different scenarios to protect its citizens in the event of a “negative development,” but stressed that any move that would breach Iran’s sovereignty was not being considered.

Turkey, which borders Iran and is a member of NATO, has said it opposes military intervention and favors a diplomatic solution. The Turkish presidency’s office for countering disinformation earlier rejected reports that Ankara was preparing to enter Iranian territory to prevent a possible refugee influx.

Students at Iran's University of Art held a protest on Wednesday, chanting slogans, including “Death to the dictator,” and “Political prisoners must be freed.”

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that the country would respond forcefully if the United States takes military action during ongoing negotiations.

“If Washington decides on military action during negotiations, it will face a decisive and strong response from our forces,” he said in remarks aired by state television, adding that Iran has never sought nuclear weapons and will not do so.

New Zealand imposed further sanctions on Iran on Wednesday, placing travel bans on 40 Iranian officials and others accused of involvement in suppression of protests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said.

The bans target Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib and Prosecutor-General Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, as well as members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps among others.

“It has been horrifying to witness the brutal killing of thousands of protestors in Iran,” Peters said, adding that Iranians’ rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression had been “ruthlessly violated.”

Peters said the measures align Wellington with Australia, Britain, the European Union, Canada and the United States.

Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said failure to reach an agreement between the United States and Iran could lead to the use of force.

“The message is that it is not impossible to reach an agreement that avoids more disruption, more deaths, more instability in the region,” Grossi said in an interview with RTVC Noticias. He added that the goal is to ensure “there are no nuclear weapons in Iran by any other path than violence.”

Grossi said the crisis must be resolved through a deal but warned that uncertainty over Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile increases risks. He said the IAEA has not been able to resume inspections of Iran’s enriched uranium since last year’s 12-day war, adding that while this does not mean nuclear weapons exist, the lack of monitoring “can generate dramatic decisions,” he told RTVC Noticias director William Parra after a visit to Colombia and ahead of talks in Geneva.

Political commentator Sadegh Zibakalam on Wednesday expressed shock at pro-Pahlavi stance voiced by Iran’s university students, saying he never imagined such slogans would be heard on campus.

“As a professor who taught the history of modern Iran’s political developments at university for 30 years, I could not have imagined even in my dreams that a university which, since Dec. 7, 1953, had always chanted against the Pahlavis would, after 82 years, out of anger and hatred, return to the Pahlavis,” wrote the professor and reformist figure on X.

Students at Iran’s major universities have been staging anti-government protests on campuses, calling for regime change and voicing support for exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi.

Iran accused the United States and Israel of running a coordinated disinformation campaign against Tehran, dismissing allegations about its nuclear program, ballistic missiles and the death toll from January protests.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei cited “law of propaganda coined by Nazi Joseph Goebbels,” in a post on X on Wednesday and said, “This is now systematically used by the US administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime, to serve their sinister disinformation & misinformation campaign against the Nation of Iran.”

“Whatever they're alleging in regards to Iran's nuclear program, Iran's ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January's unrest is simply the repetition of 'big lies',” he added.

President Donald Trump said in his State of the Union address that Iran is pursuing missile and nuclear weapons programs despite past US efforts to stop them.

Trump said the country had already developed missiles capable of threatening Europe and US bases overseas, and was working on missiles that could reach the United States.

“They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, in particular nuclear weapons. Yet they continue, starting it all over,” he said.

Trump added that the US is negotiating with Tehran, but he has not heard “the secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’ That is my preference.”

Trump highlighted a US military operation last June, which he called a “breakthrough” that obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program on Iranian soil, known as Operation Midnight Hammer. “For decades, it had been the policy of the United States never to allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Trump also criticized the Iranian government and its proxies for spreading “terrorism, death and hate” since taking power 47 years ago. He accused them of killing and maiming thousands of American service members and hundreds of thousands — even millions — of civilians with roadside bombs, calling them “the kings of the roadside bomb.”

Trump said US actions during his first term, including taking out a key figure known as the father of the roadside bomb Ghassem Soleimani, had a “huge impact.”

Trump said the US is still negotiating with Tehran but said he has not heard “the secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’ That is my preference.” He added, “As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must.”

Senator Cynthia Lummis told Iran International on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that while she supports measures such as sanctions and restricting Iranian oil, she does not want American troops deployed.