Trump's deadline for Khamenei: negotiate or face war

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. It is Friday, 10 Bahman 1404, January 30, 2026. Students at more than 30 faculties and universities boycotted their end-of-term exams in protest against the recent killings. A list published by the student union of Shahid Beheshti University includes Beheshti, Isfahan Medical, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Mashhad, Lorestan, Alborz, Qom, Semnan, Kashan, Gorgan, Mazandaran, Babol, and Zahedan. This is the right and fitting thing to do. When the regime resorts to repression and killing, whether in the streets or on university campuses and elsewhere, the best response is tactics of non-

1:03 cooperation, in fact paralysis tactics, like this exam boycott: strikes, boycotting a certain bank or the banks under Khamenei's control, and so on. These are tactics that pose no danger to people, yet people can take part in them. This is a worthy act, and if it is carried out properly in the universities, it can become a model for the other guilds and social groups in the country, so that each of them, according to its own circumstances and the kind of work it does, can boycott, strike, and so on, and do this with complete calm and without danger

2:01 to themselves. Following Engineer Mousavi, Mr. Karroubi has also published a statement in which, while condemning the crime, he states explicitly that Iran's deplorable situation today is the result of Khamenei's destructive policies. Engineer Mousavi, in the statement he had published, wrote that holding a referendum on the constitution, by forming an inclusive front made up of all national tendencies on the basis of three principles—no foreign intervention, rejection of domestic tyranny, and a peaceful democratic transition—based on the will and wishes of the

2:56 nation, is possible only by the people themselves and without foreign intervention. It is a precise statement in which even the words were chosen carefully, including this phrase "foreign intervention," which is correct. But Mr. Mousavi did not in fact reject international support or international backing. What every movement all over the world has needed is international support, which comes from the international press, from non-governmental organizations, from parliaments, and ultimately from governments; that is something that must come to the aid of the Iranian people. In any case, the fact that a wave has emerged from within the regime, from people on the margins of the regime, or from opponents of the regime

4:04 inside Iran, from the prisons, from those who are under house arrest, and from various other sectors, clearly shows that this horrific massacre Khamenei carried out, this crime against humanity he committed, has in practice shaken the foundations of his rule. The mistaken assumption that "we kill, say, 50,000 people and then we'll be safe and the people won't dare to protest" is wrong. One can say with confidence that after this line of blood, this red line he has drawn, Khamenei will not be the Khamenei of before, the Islamic Republic will not be the Islamic Republic of before,

4:56 this people will not be the people of before, and this country will not be the country of before. So in fact one can say that a page has turned in the contemporary history of our country and we are entering a new chapter. Now, Mr. Trump said today in front of reporters that the Islamic Republic will soon want to come and negotiate, and he said, "We told them two issues matter to America: one is the nuclear issue, and the other is that you must not kill the people." He also said in his remarks that "we have given a temporary deadline," but when a reporter asked until when, he did not say until

5:54 when. There are many rumors that the deadline runs until Sunday, although some rumors said it is until today, Friday, and that the Islamic Republic has been asked to come to the table for direct negotiations on the nuclear, missile, and proxy issues. Today, however, Mr. Trump reduced the issues to just two. In any case, this diplomatic fever is also visible on the Islamic Republic's side: Mr. Ali Larijani has gone to Moscow and Mr. Araghchi to Turkey. On the other hand, Mr. Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi defense minister and brother of Mohammed bin Salman, has gone to Washington and is in Washington now.

6:54 There is a lot of diplomatic activity. Mr. Larijani presumably carried Mr. Khamenei's message, and the issue of war with America and such must have been raised with Putin, probably to obtain Putin's permission, or his advice, on whether or not to negotiate with America. As for Mr. Araghchi, regardless of the bluster he has always engaged in, which is fine for the cameras, Turkey has expressed willingness to act as an intermediary, in fact to mediate between Iran and America, so that negotiations take place through Turkish mediation. On the other hand, the Saudis, together with the Emiratis, the Qataris, and the countries of the southern rim of the Persian Gulf, are also busy both in

7:56 Tehran and in Washington to bring matters to negotiation and avoid war, because their concern is that if a war happens, it may ultimately engulf them too. In any case, the outcome of these diplomatic moves will become clear within two or three days at most. Now, the matter of placing the IRGC on the list of terrorist organizations: this was approved by the European Union, at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states. The resolution that the European Parliament had passed was approved by this meeting of the Council,

8:54 in effect the EU's executive foreign affairs body. So it has now become part of the European Union's directives. It is said that there is also a lot of activity in Britain, and that following the European Union, Britain too will soon designate the IRGC a terrorist organization. There is a lot of talk that the Europeans will probably downgrade their relations, meaning they will recall their ambassadors, in which case the Islamic Republic will naturally have to recall its ambassadors too, and the level of their relations with the Islamic Republic will drop at least one degree. But the more important development, in

9:48 my opinion, is this: apart from the legal, financial, and communication consequences of designating the IRGC as terrorist, which will create huge problems for the Islamic Republic and will affect all its dealings with the Europeans and many other countries, there is also an important political issue. That is, this step Europe took after 47 years is a kind of turning its back, a firm step toward turning its back on the Islamic Republic. Because from its very founding until now, the Islamic Republic had always tried, even if it was fighting with America or hostile to it, or to Israel, to keep Europe in the middle, and always

10:44 to manage relations so that it would not reach a dead end with the Europeans. Perhaps on many occasions it even tried to create a rift between Europe and America and to use the Europeans' pressure on America. But this turning of the back by the Europeans, this firm step they have taken, in my view, after 47 years, is putting an end to these games of the Islamic Republic.