Senior Iranian clerics used Friday Prayers to attack the course of negotiations with Washington and issue warnings of retaliation, as a major US military buildup in the region fuels fears of renewed conflict.
Tehran’s interim Friday prayer leader said on Friday that Israel is “unwilling to attack Iran” after the “12-day war,” saying the episode showed Iran’s strength.
Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi Fard said the experience of the 12-day conflict meant that “the Zionists are seriously preventing aggression against Iran,” because they fear war and “know they have no defense shield against Iran’s power.”
Aboutorabi argued that the confrontation last year, which included US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day campaign, altered the regional balance. He linked that assessment to the current round of talks with Washington, saying negotiations are unfolding within a broader strategy set by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“These negotiations are one of the important issues that have affected the political atmosphere of the world, the region and the country,” Aboutorabi said. “The strategy determined by the Supreme Leader has enabled the effective and commanding presence of the diplomatic teams on the international stage.”
Negotiations, he said, are advancing in close connection with active diplomacy, nuclear policy and military capability, arguing that continued threats from the United States would be costly and unproductive.
The rhetoric comes as Washington expands its military presence in the Middle East. US officials say 13 warships are now deployed in the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, supported by destroyers and littoral combat ships. A second carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, is en route with additional escorts. Fighter jets and refueling aircraft have also been repositioned.
US media also reported that American forces could be ready to launch strikes within days, although President Donald Trump has not announced a final decision. Trump has repeatedly warned that military action remains an option if talks fail to produce a new agreement to replace the 2015 nuclear deal he withdrew from in 2018.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there had been “a little bit of progress” in Iran talks held in Geneva but acknowledged that significant gaps remain. She added that there are “many reasons and arguments” for a potential strike and said Iran would be “very wise” to reach a deal.
Hardline messaging from provinces
In Mashhad, Friday Prayer leader Ahmad Alamolhoda questioned the value of negotiations, saying if talks result in what he described as a “wrong and foolish” outcome, their course must be tightly defined.
Alamolhoda threatened that Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz, pointing to what he described as a “heroic exercise” there and warning that Tehran has the ability to shut the strategic waterway and “entangle and exhaust the world.”
“That is the message,” he said. “This is who we are. Can you confront us? Can you match us?”
In Karaj, cleric Mohammad Mahdi Hosseini Hamedani referred to the unveiling of a hypersonic missile by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, saying its speed and multiple-warhead capability sent a message to Iran’s adversaries. The United States, not Iran, is in greater need of negotiations, he said.
Separately, Iranian lawmaker Amir Hayat Moghaddam said it is possible that a US warship could be sunk and American forces captured if war breaks out, warning that Iran would respond forcefully to any attack.
“If the Americans attack, we will immediately give a crushing response,” Moghaddam told Didban Iran.
Moghaddam, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, said Iran could target all US bases in the region and that any response would not be “limited or symbolic.”
“In case of war, we can harm American forces, whether soldier or general,” he said, adding that Iran could also target the United States itself, including “the palace of Trump.”
At the same time, parliamentarian Salar Velayatmadar sought to temper alarm over US naval deployments, saying the proximity of American vessels does not automatically signal war. Such movements, he said, do not necessarily indicate imminent conflict, even as he warned that US bases in the region remain within Iran’s reach.
Araghchi pushes back on zero enrichment reports
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that the United States has not asked Tehran to permanently halt uranium enrichment, countering reports that Washington was demanding zero enrichment as a condition for a deal.
Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Araghchi described recent talks in Geneva as “constructive” and said both sides had agreed on guiding principles for a possible agreement.
“The US side has not asked for zero enrichment,” Araghchi said, adding that Iran had not offered to suspend enrichment either.
“What we are now talking about is how to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program, including enrichment, is peaceful and would remain peaceful forever,” he said.
Araghchi said there was “no military solution” to Iran’s nuclear program and that diplomacy remained the only viable path forward, though he added that Iran was prepared for both negotiation and war.
According to Araghchi, the two sides have agreed to begin drafting a framework for a potential agreement at their next meeting, calling it “a normal way of any international negotiations.”
He also warned that if Iran were attacked again, it would defend itself, saying that after the previous 12-day conflict its “enemies had no way but to ask for an unconditional ceasefire.”
German authorities said nearly 250,000 people attended the Munich rally, calling it the largest protest by Iranians in Europe to date. Organizers and local officials also reported large turnouts in Toronto and Los Angeles, each estimated at around 350,000, as well as 50,000 in London and 45,000 in Vancouver.
Speaking at the Munich event, Prince Reza Pahlavi addressed people inside Iran directly. “Know and see that you are not alone and that your voice has reached the world,” he said.
Messages sent to Iran International and widely shared on social media described what contributors called an unprecedented display of cohesion and discipline across continents.
Messages from inside Iran
One viewer wrote: “Salute to our honorable compatriots outside Iran. Seeing the beautiful images of unity, harmony, civility and order brought tears of joy to our eyes inside the country.”
Another message read: “We were tired and disappointed, but when we saw you in the gatherings abroad, we cried for all of us. Who can separate us from each other?”
A resident of Tehran wrote, “We bow our heads in respect to all our compatriots around the world. We saw your gatherings everywhere and wept.”
From Shiraz, a viewer addressed the authorities, writing: “Every bullet you fired at our young people united our hearts more. We are now united, aware and full of faith.”
Others described the rallies as a turning point after weeks of pressure at home. “Yesterday, after 37 days, for the first time we were not sad or hopeless. Everyone was talking about you, and there was excitement in their eyes,” one message said.
Several framed the demonstrations as evidence of a shared national purpose transcending borders. “It was proven that the power of love for Iran and Iranians does not fit within political and geographical boundaries,” one viewer wrote.
“With seeing you, every moment was tears and emotion. We hope to celebrate our freedom soon on our own soil,” another message said.
Support extended beyond messages sent directly to Iran International. Similar posts circulated widely across social media platforms, echoing themes of unity, perseverance and anticipation of political change.
The scale of the February 14 rallies prompted criticism from state media, officials and pro-government online activists, who questioned attendance figures and accused organizers of exaggeration.
Responses ranged from attempts to downplay the gatherings to verbal attacks on participants abroad. Supporters inside Iran, however, portrayed the demonstrations as a morale boost amid continuing domestic restrictions.
“Your presence is a bridge of hope and solidarity that lights many hearts inside the country,” another Tehran resident wrote.
“The US president said in one of his recent remarks that for 47 years America has been unable to eliminate the Islamic Republic; he complained about it to his own people. For 47 years, America has not been able to eliminate the Islamic Republic. That is a good admission,” Khamenei said at a meeting with people from East Azarbaijan province on Tuesday.
“I say: You, too, will not be able to do this.”
His comments come days after Trump said regime change “would be the best thing that could happen.”
Khamenei also addressed remarks by the US president that the American military is the strongest in the world.
“The strongest army in the world may at times receive such a slap that it cannot rise,” he said.
“They keep saying we have sent an aircraft carrier toward Iran. Very well, an aircraft carrier is a dangerous device, but more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea.”
His statements come amid heightened rhetoric between Tehran and Washington over military deployments and regional security and at the time a new round of negotiations mediated by Oman is underway in Geneva.
Talks with US
US threats and demands, Khamenei added, reflected an attempt to dominate Iran. “These statements by the US president, sometimes threatening, sometimes saying this must be done or that must not be done, mean they seek domination over the Iranian nation,” he said.
“Iran will not pledge allegiance to corrupt leaders currently in power in the United States.”
“They say let us negotiate about your nuclear energy, and the result of the negotiation should be that you do not have this energy,” he continued. “If a negotiation is to take place, and there is no place for negotiation, determining its result in advance is wrong and foolish.”
US presidents and some senators, he went on, were making an “absurd” demand by setting conditions before any dialogue.
January protest remarks
In the same speech, Khamenei said those killed during the January protests are mourned as martyrs.
“Blood was shed. We are grieving. I say we are in mourning for the blood that was shed,” he said, adding that not all of the dead fell into the same category.
Security forces responded to the latest nationwide protests with lethal force, mass arrests, and communication blackouts. At least 36,500 people killed in the recent wave of unrest, while authorities acknowledge a far lower figure of about 3,117.
Security forces, according to the Amnesty International, moved quickly after the killings to impose sweeping controls aimed at silencing survivors, intimidating families of victims and preventing documentation of what it described as unlawful mass killings carried out to crush what it called a popular uprising.
The measures included arbitrary mass arrests, enforced disappearances, bans on gatherings, night-time curfews, and a near-total internet blackout, alongside the deployment of heavily armed patrols across cities and inter-city roads, Amnesty International said.
Khamenei argued some were “corrupt elements and instigators,” while others were not involved in organizing the protests. He divided the dead into three groups, beginning with what he described as "defenders of security" – police, Basij and Guards members and those alongside them – calling them “among the greatest martyrs.”
He described a second group as bystanders. When turmoil breaks out in a city, he said, “innocent people walking toward their workplace or their homes are also killed,” adding that they too should be considered martyrs because their deaths occurred within “the enemy’s sedition.”
A third group, he said, consisted of those who had been misled. “They were deceived, inexperienced… they are also ours; they are our children,” he said, adding that some later wrote to him expressing regret. Officials, he said, were right to count those killed from this group as martyrs.
“Therefore, the circle of our fallen whom we count as martyrs is a wide one,” he added, excluding only what he called “the ringleaders and those who took money and weapons from the enemy.”
Khamenei concluded by offering prayers for mercy and forgiveness for those he described as misled participants, framing the uprising as an enemy-driven plot rather than a domestic protest movement.
