Iran reacts to Trump’s 2026 State of the Union, accusing him of “big lies” about the nuclear program and protests.

Iran’s reaction to the President Trump’s 2026 State of the Union it was direct. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Mr. Trump for repeating “big lies” about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program and the number of people killed in a crackdown on anti-government protests in January.

As the two countries prepare for another round of negotiations Iran’s uranium enrichment program – with the threat of the US military in the talks – Iranian officials dismissed Mr. Trump that they are working to build a nuclear weapon, accusing him of trying to “repeat a lie often enough until it becomes true.”

What did Trump say about Iran in his State of the Union?

During his speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump also said the US “destroyed Iran’s nuclear weapons program” with strikes in June – a claim by the UN nuclear watchdog. The IAEA, recently cast doubt.

“They have been warned not to make future efforts to rebuild their weapons program, and especially nuclear weapons, yet they continue,” Mr Trump said, adding: “They are starting over. We finished it and they want to start over and now they are pursuing their evil ambitions.”

The president repeated his vow that he would never allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

Satellite images since late January they have shown the roofs built over two of Iran’s nuclear facilities damaged by US strikes last summer, in Natanz and Isfahan, which may indicate Iran’s efforts to salvage any remaining material, but the nature of any new work at those sites has not been confirmed.

The president also said that the Iranian security forces had killed 32,000 people for their campaign to end the recent anti-government protests. That’s a higher death toll than previously reported, and a higher number than Tehran officials have publicly acknowledged.

Iran’s response to Mr. Trump’s State of the Union

“Professional liars are masters at creating false truth,” said a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry in a statement posted on social media on Wednesday.

“‘Repeat a lie often enough until it becomes the truth,'” the propaganda coined by Nazi Joseph Goebbels, is now systematically used by America’s administration and its war profiteers,” the statement said, accusing Mr.

As the next round of negotiations on the nuclear program is about to begin, and Mr. Trump on hitting Iran if no deal is reached, the Speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, told lawmakers on Wednesday that while the country remains “ready for a dignified negotiation,” it is also “ready to defend itself against an aggressor.”

“If you decide to repeat what happened in the past by using deception, lies, flawed analysis, and false information, and launch an attack during negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste a powerful punch from the Iranian people and the national defense forces,” Ghalibaf said.

What are the chances of a US-Iran nuclear deal to stop war?

“We have a historic opportunity to strike an unprecedented agreement that addresses common concerns and serves common interests,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement hours before Mr. Trump introduced his speech, adding that a deal “is within reach, but only if negotiation is prioritized.”

While Mr. Trump he said in his words that Iran has never decided to develop a nuclear weapon, Araghchi vowed shortly before the US leader said that Iran “will never develop a nuclear weapon.”

Araghchi insisted, however, on the country’s right to “use peaceful nuclear technology assignments” – pointing to a potentially greater sticking point in negotiations with the US.

He did not reiterate the need in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, but Mr. Trump has suggested that any new nuclear deal with Iran may require the complete abandonment of all domestic enrichment, and that is something Tehran, as Araghchi talks about in his remarks, has never accepted.

Araghchi said on Sunday on CBS ‘”Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan“that he could not predict that President Trump intends to attack Iran, “but one fact is that if they want to find a solution to the peaceful nuclear program of Iran, the only way is to talk.”

“I believe there is still a good chance of having a solution, based on a winning game, and the solution is within our reach,” Araghchi told Brennan.

But he added that “enrichment is our right.”

“We are a member of the NPT [nuclear non-proliferation treaty] and we have every right to enjoy peaceful nuclear energy, including enrichment. How do we use this? This right is something you know is related to us, only enrichment is a critical part of our discussions. The American team knows it, it knows our situation, we know its situation, and we have changed our concerns, and I think a solution can be achieved, but I will not discuss it with the media.”

“We are trying to make it something that can address the concerns and interests of both sides, and we are working on those things,” Araghchi said of the nuclear talks that will resume Thursday in Geneva, adding that he believes “we can work on those things and prepare a good text and reach a quick agreement.”

But Araghchi reiterated warnings from his country that if Mr.

“If the US attacks us, then we have every right to defend ourselves. If the US attacks us, that is an act of aggression. What we do in response is an act of self-defense. Therefore, it is also appropriate and legal. Therefore, our missiles cannot hit American soil, so obviously we have to do something else – we have to hit, you know, the American base in the region.”

For Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Chatham House think tank in London, the two sides still seem very far apart. He told CBS News on Wednesday that, in his view, military conflict is inevitable, and soon.

“I think it’s close, I mean it’s a matter of days. War seems inevitable to me because President Trump was not only assembling a large collection of weapons to hit Iran, but also because President Trump has clearly shown that he wants the Islamic Republic to be submitted to the terms and conditions that the leaders of Iran currently seem unwilling to do.”

“The main thing Iran can give is a commitment not to enrich uranium beyond a certain level inside Iran for several years,” Vakil said. “It is fair to say that Iran is not already enriching uranium and has not been since the June war last summer when the United States struck Iran’s nuclear weapons and buried its enrichment program. So that is already happening, and Iran can give that permission to President Trump.”

“But what Iran wants at the same time is the confirmation of its nuclear rights like signing a non-proliferation agreement,” said Vakil. “Iran doesn’t want to be singled out. Iran wants to be treated like all the other signatories. So what it wants is the ability to enrich uranium to very low levels for therapeutic purposes. And that would be the way it withdraws from this system.”