Iran’s president rules out concessions, urges end to ‘no war, no peace’
Masoud Pezeshkian says Tehran will negotiate from strength but make no capitulations, as talks with Washington stall over Strait of Hormuz
TEHRAN (MNTV) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran has no intention of making concessions to the United States and pressed for an end to what he called a “no war, no peace” situation, arguing the prolonged uncertainty is damaging Iran’s economy, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Pezeshkian said officials were discussing almost daily how to move beyond the standoff and reach an understanding that would preserve Iran’s principles while deterring another attack.
War offered no solution, he said, but the lingering threat of renewed fighting was deterring investment and taking an economic toll.
He defended a memorandum of understanding signed with Washington in June, rejecting domestic criticism — chiefly from hardliners in parliament — that it amounted to capitulation.
“They cannot find even a single clause in this agreement that indicates capitulation,” he said in earlier remarks. “All the commitments concern the other side.”
The 14-point memorandum was signed in Islamabad in June through Pakistani and Qatari mediation, halting a war that began Feb. 28 when US and Israeli forces launched a joint offensive on Iran — a conflict that has killed more than 3,400 people and, in its opening strikes, Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He was succeeded by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to whom Pezeshkian’s presidency remains ultimately subordinate. The deal set a 60-day window for negotiations toward a final agreement.
Those talks have since stalled over implementation and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes, which Iran has effectively blockaded since the war began.
Tehran, negotiating the strait’s reopening through Omani mediation, says it will lift the blockade only once its conditions are met and it is compensated for what it calls US violations of the June deal; Washington says it will lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports once commercial shipping resumes without impediment.
Iran’s military, meanwhile, has warned it remains ready to respond forcefully to any new attack.
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