Why has America closed the door to negotiations?

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, the 13th of Shahrivar 1405, September 4, 2026. In the past week, after the relative calm that had held from late Tir until last week, fighting between Iran and the United States resumed. First, last Saturday a large oil tanker in the southern lane of the Strait of Hormuz was hit by a projectile. Iran did not officially claim responsibility, but it was said to be the work of the Islamic Republic, and the political deputy of the IRGC also announced that they had built a mine-laying system by converting

1:01 Fajr-5 rockets with a 333-millimeter caliber, so that instead of a rocket a mine is mounted on it and launched. He said it can launch 100 mines over a short distance and place them in the water. With the announcement of this new method of laying mines at sea, the United States attacked Larak on Sunday. It struck two IRGC launch platforms that were apparently used for launching these rocket launchers. That same day, or rather at dawn on Monday Iran time, Iran attacked two American bases in Jordan, and that same Monday two

2:01 Saudi tankers were also hit by projectiles. On Tuesday, the next day, the United States carried out an extensive attack that was unprecedented in the past month or two. Targets from Bandar Abbas to Chabahar, from Asaluyeh to Ahvaz, to Jiroft airport were attacked, leaving at least 18 dead and 18 wounded. Among the tragedies of the American attack was the strike of an American projectile, whether from an aircraft, a ground-launched missile or something else, on the village of Kuhestak in

2:52 Sirik County. It hit a wedding ceremony and left at least 5 dead and 70 wounded, among them a child. Meanwhile, the nearest possible target to this wedding and these civilians could be a telecommunications tower, which CNN and the BBC both measured and say was at least 112 meters from the point of impact, and American equipment does not have such a targeting error. The Islamic Republic accused the United States

3:46 of knowingly attacking the wedding, and on that basis filed a complaint with the United Nations. The UN Secretary-General also condemned it, expressed regret and asked both sides to return to the negotiating table. But after this American attack, on that same Tuesday and on Wednesday, Iran again attacked Jordan, Bahrain, and Erbil in Iraq, where an American reconnaissance balloon control system was apparently located, as well as the American base in Kuwait. On Thursday Iran again attacked Kuwait and the UAE, and as we said, American bases

4:41 are there. For now, from yesterday until now, Friday, as we speak, the war is quiet. Oil reached $95.89 per barrel for North Sea crude, and in Iran the dollar rate on the open market reached 221,000 tomans today, and at some hours rose as high as 224,000 tomans; in effect it has entered the 220,000-toman range. So you can see this state of no war, no peace, which sometimes intensifies with these clashes and sometimes subsides. In fact it is a situation that is both war and peace, both a pause and

5:43 a conflict, and it has effectively put the country in a state of uncertainty and imposes great pressure not only on people's nerves and minds but on every aspect of their lives. On the other hand, Mr. Pezeshkian, who was attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Kyrgyzstan, stated explicitly in his speech on Tuesday, the 10th of Shahrivar, that if America returns to its commitments in the memorandum of understanding, the Islamic Republic will also immediately reciprocate.

6:36 What Mr. Pezeshkian means is the 14-article Islamabad memorandum of understanding, which did not last more than two weeks. But America's response to Mr. Pezeshkian's statement was very cold. On one side, apart from Mr. Trump himself, who said that memorandum is no longer worth the paper it was signed on and that we will continue the pressure, the other officials of his government also turned their faces away and gave no answer to Mr. Pezeshkian, and mostly talked about how negotiation is pointless, how you can't talk to these people, and so on and so forth.

7:30 As I said before, America, in fact the White House, has made its decision to do three things regarding Iran until November. First, to try to make the Strait of Hormuz a passage through which oil tankers can pass, and perhaps to take the lever of pressure of the Strait of Hormuz out of the hands of the Islamic Republic or reduce its importance. Second, to continue the naval blockade. And third, to expand in various dimensions the economic pressure that Mr. Bessent announced last week. In this way, the hurry Trump had for negotiation has cooled, and they have stated that

8:34 they will no longer return to the memorandum, whose 60-day deadline has also expired. What is being heard now is that the Americans say that memorandum was for 60 days, for a temporary ceasefire and halt by both sides, and that within those 60 days the fundamental issues were to be addressed and agreed upon. Now that the 60 days of that memorandum are also over, when we talk now, we must get to the fundamental issues. The axes that have apparently been conveyed to Iran are: the 60 percent uranium and its fate must be determined, full IAEA supervision must be established, Iran's missile program, Iran's proxy forces, and a permanent guarantee

9:32 of freedom of navigation — these are said to be the five issues. The Americans have told Iran that if you come to the table, we must talk directly about these. In fact, it seems the opportunity the memorandum had created — and the truth is that the text of the memorandum was very much in Iran's favor and America had made major commitments in it — has effectively been lost. And with Mr. Trump saying he is in no hurry, the matter has essentially been put into limbo for now, and it is unclear what the next step will be. In addition, Mr. Trump posted a dangerous tweet on his social network,

10:31 the gist of which was that we will continue the pressure until the people of Iran rise up and fight this regime. In other words, he in effect called for an armed uprising in Iran — something the Israelis are pursuing. Officials of the Islamic Republic have also repeatedly threatened the people, from the head of the Judiciary to Mr. Ghalibaf and others, to IRGC commanders, to a statement by the Ministry of Intelligence and so on, saying in short that this is what the enemy wants and that if protests of this kind take place in the streets, they will crack down severely. About this subject, and why

11:27 this is dangerous — this thing Mr. Trump is saying — perhaps on the coming nights there will be an opportunity to talk more. This strategy is in fact a strategy whose end could be the collapse of Iran and civil war. On the other hand, the conflict with Iran's proxy forces also continues. In Yemen there is fighting between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed government — the Iran-backed Houthis and the Saudi-backed government — so in effect something like a proxy war between these two Yemeni groups is underway. Clashes have broken out between them at six points, leaving 120 dead so far. It is said that the Pakistani army, which had sent forces to Saudi Arabia — numbers up to 10,000 are mentioned —

12:25 has gone to Yemen. They have trained and equipped the army of the government based in Aden in southern Yemen and are also supporting it from the air in its fight against the Houthi forces, who control Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and vast areas. In Lebanon too, Israel has finally captured the Ali al-Taher heights, over which it had been fighting for several days. It has seized Hezbollah's underground passages, depots and positions, and if it establishes itself there it will dominate the city of Nabatieh. It is said that a number of IRGC members who were in this battle have also been taken prisoner by Israel. In Iraq too,

13:23 the matter of joining, or better said, disarming the Hashd al-Shaabi forces and integrating them into the Iraqi armed forces was supposed to be done by the end of September, but supporters of the Islamic Republic are putting a lot of pressure to have this delayed somehow by two years. In any case, it can be seen that, more or less, they are in practice applying pressure in the region on the axes the Americans are talking about. What is dangerous is that the Israelis — their defense minister has said many times that our job is unfinished, and Mr. Netanyahu has also emphasized this — say they must strike Iran's energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Mr. Hassan Rouhani,

14:24 at a gathering of the provincial governors from his own term, stated that everyone from the president to the people does not want to watch this state broadcaster, IRIB. He also said that if we are going to go on fighting the world powers for another 20 years, we must ask the people, and he emphasized that whoever holds whatever post holds it as a trust from the people. This kind of talk by Mr. Rouhani can in fact be described as directly or indirectly challenging the office of the Guardianship of the Jurist and the organs under its supervision. With hope for the victory of Iran and the Iranian people.