US - Iran relations

Director of the Center for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London

08 Feb 2025 9 4

Nader Itayim

Inserted 1 month ago

“These sanctions, and what is sure to follow, will almost certainly have an impact. The question really is how big that impact might be. And that will ultimately depend on how seriously the Trump administration chooses to go after the Iranian oil trade.”

Middle East energy expert at the U.K.-based Argus Media

08 Feb 2025 7 4

Abbas Araghchi

Inserted 1 month ago

“Launching a military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be one of the biggest historical mistakes the US could make. Iran would respond immediately and decisively to any attack and that it would lead to an all-out war in the region.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran

31 Jan 2025 7 4

Masoud Pezeshkian

Inserted 2 months ago

“We have never attempted this to begin with, and we never will. Accusations that Iran tried to assassinate Trump are part of schemes by foreigners to feed into Iranophobia.”

Aa

Iranian President

15 Jan 2025 5 1

Antony Blinken

Inserted 2 months ago

“You have to look at what would be enduring and what would make sure that the program doesn't come back. So one of the things you have to assess is: If that were to happen, would Iran simply rebuild and rebuild even deeper underground in a place that would be even harder to get to? Iran has accumulated enough fissile material necessary for a nuclear weapon and could upgrade material to bomb-grade quality within a week or so. However, actually developing a weapon would take far longer. Iran is going to be faced with decisions of its own of how it wants to move forward, but I think the incoming administration would have an opportunity precisely because Iran's on its back feet - the - it's suffering economically in a terrible way. Its people are disputing so much of what the regime has done, particularly in meddling in the affairs of other countries throughout the region. This is a moment of opportunity, and maybe a moment of opportunity to resolve in an enduring way the nuclear challenge posed by Iran, but also the actions that Iran takes throughout the region.”

U.S. Secretary of State

13 Jan 2025 4 2

Hossein Salami

Inserted 2 months ago

“Iran's military is not as weak as some believed. We know that such judgments are the dreams of the enemy, not realities on the ground. Be careful, don't make any strategic mistakes or miscalculations.”

Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)

11 Jan 2025 5 3

Keith Kellog

Inserted 2 months ago

“These pressures are not just kinetic, just not military force, but they must be economic and diplomatic as well. There are now opportunities to change Iran for the better. We must exploit the weakness we now see. The hope is there, so must too be the action.”

Trump-nominated Ukraine-Russia envoy

11 Jan 2025 1 1

Richard Nephew

Inserted 2 months ago

“Washington's power over Tehran's nuclear calculus is ultimately limited. No one in the United States knows how Iranian officials are really looking at their current predicament. The return of maximum pressure sanctions could be the trigger for weaponization. But the blows Iran has already received from Israel, combined with its struggling economy, could already be enough to trigger it to go nuclear at a time of its own choosing. U.S. policymakers should begin to build into their own calculations that Iranian nuclear weapons are an eventuality to be managed, but there is a limited opportunity to avoid this outcome.”

Foreignaffairs

Research Scholar at Columbia University at the Center on Global Energy Policy and an Adjunct Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

02 Jan 2025 4 3

Mohammad Javad Zarif

Inserted 4 months ago

“He [Donald Trump] must have realised that the maximum pressure policy that he initiated caused Iran's enrichment to reach 60 percent from 3.5 percent. As a man of calculation, he should do the math and see what the advantages and disadvantages of this policy have been and whether he wants to continue or change this harmful policy.”

Aje

Iranian Vice President for Strategic Affairs

09 Nov 2024 5 3

Mohammad Javad Zarif

Inserted 4 months ago

“Let us hope that President-elect Trump will stand against war as pledged. Iran, having shown its resolve and ability to stand up to any aggression, will not be swayed by threats, but will be cognisant of respect.”

Aje

Iran’s former foreign minister

07 Nov 2024 5 2

Ali Khamenei

Inserted 4 months ago

“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader

02 Nov 2024 4 3

Patrick Ryder

Inserted 4 months ago

“US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several US Air Force B-52 long-range strike bombers to the region. Austin continues to make clear that should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people.”

Pentagon spokesperson - Military officer and United States Air Force brigadier general

01 Nov 2024 6 2

Ebrahim Jabbari

Inserted 5 months ago

“The Americans should know that if one day they enter the battlefield and want to take action against the Islamic Iran, their bases, interests and ships will be within the reach of our weapons. The US is not prepared at all to confront us, the axis of resistance and the Muslim world. Although the Americans support Israel, it is unlikely that they will commit a folly and engage in a conflict with Iran. They always advise the [Israeli] regime not to engage in a conflict with the Islamic republic.”

Aje

Adviser to the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

15 Oct 2024 8 2

Masoud Pezeshkian

Inserted 5 months ago

“European countries and the United States don't want relations between countries [in the Middle East] to develop peacefully. The situation in the region has escalated dramatically because Israel doesn't recognize any international legal and humanitarian standards.”

Tass

Iranian President

11 Oct 2024 4 6

Lindsey Graham

Inserted 5 months ago

“To my friends in France, you've got this ass backwards. You should be doubling down on helping Israel because the people that want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the French people. You're fighting our fight. We're going to help you with your military needs. The Twin Towers fell not because of a hurricane, [but] because radical Islamist terrorists killed 3,000 of us on a single day. And they would kill all of us if they could. If Iran ever got a nuclear weapon, they would use it. The question would be who would they use it against first. Me? You? Saudi Arabia? We can never let that happen. So we're going to help you. Whatever it takes to get your people back in their homes, you do it.”

Senator from South Carolina and member of the Republican Party

07 Oct 2024 5 3

Matthew Miller

Inserted 5 months ago

“If you look at the actions that they [Israel] have taken, they were bringing terrorists to justice, terrorists who have launched attacks on Israeli civilians. What you saw (was) Iran launching a state-on-state attack to protect and defend the terrorist groups that it built, nurtured and controlled. So there is a difference between the actions.”

Apnews

US State Department spokesperson

01 Oct 2024 4 5

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf

Inserted 5 months ago

“We will not hesitate to go to any level in order to help the resistance. The US is complicit in all of these crimes and… has to accept the repercussions.”

Iran’s parliament speaker

29 Sep 2024 4 5

Patrick Ryder

Inserted 5 months ago

“Secretary Austin made clear that should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every necessary measure to defend our people.”

Pentagon spokesperson - Military officer and United States Air Force brigadier general

29 Sep 2024 4 1

Ali Bagheri Kani

Inserted 7 months ago

“Referring to the aggression and criminal nature of the Zionists in Gaza, I warned about the deceit and dishonesty of the criminal gang ruling Tel Aviv and their most important supporter, the US, at the negotiating table. By supplying the Zionists with war weapons, the US is itself an accomplice, not a neutral mediator.”

Aje

Iran’s acting Foreign Minister

17 Aug 2024 4 3

Omar Rahman

Inserted 7 months ago

“The US is clearly signaling to Iran that [it] will be part of any fight ahead, likely to deter Iran from a significant retaliation against Israel.”