In comments yesterday in Tehran, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 4 announcement of a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran by warning that this is a failed policy that will be met with “maximum resistance” once again, the reported Islamic Republic News Agency. In a post to his X account, Araghchi warned “smart people ought to choose ‘maximum wisdom’ instead.”
Araghchi countered the claims included in Trump’s Feb. 4 National Presidential Security Memorandum-2 that Iran had violated the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that it is developing a nuclear weapon (see separate report. “Iran has already made abundantly clear that ‘under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons,’” the Foreign Minister said. As Trump is indicating he wants to negotiate with Iran on the nuclear issue, Araghchi offered, “It is not difficult to reach practical assurances that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, provided that objective guarantees are also provided that hostile measures against Iran—including economic pressures and sanctions—will be effectively terminated.”
