A series of statements by United States President Donald Trump regarding negotiations with Iran has provoked strong anger and confusion among the Iranian leadership and its supporters. On Friday, Trump claimed that Iran and the US would jointly excavate enriched uranium buried under the rubble of bombed Iranian nuclear sites and transfer it to the US. He also alleged that Iran had agreed to cease uranium enrichment on its soil.
Trump further stated that the Strait of Hormuz had been opened and would never be closed again, while the US naval blockade of Iranian ports remained in place, and sea mines were removed or in the process of removal. He emphasized that Iran would not receive billions of dollars of its own frozen assets abroad due to US sanctions, and that the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was completely unrelated to Iran.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf rejected all of Trump's claims, stating, "With these lies, they did not win the war, and they certainly will not get anywhere in negotiations either." The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Central Headquarters announced on Saturday afternoon that the Strait of Hormuz was once again heavily restricted and under "strict management" by the armed forces, citing continued "acts of piracy and maritime theft under the so-called label of a blockade" by Washington.
Domestically, state television hosts and analysts harshly criticized Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi for his tweet that the Strait of Hormuz was "declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire." One host demanded immediate clarification from Araghchi, while another noted that the tweet was in English and, since the Iranian people lack access to X due to the state-imposed near-total internet shutdown, the message was not directed at the public.
Criticism also flooded social media and local applications from government supporters. One user on the local app Baleh wrote, "We took to the streets every night with clear demands, but you shook hands with the killer of our supreme leader and handed our strait to the Zionists." Another user questioned, "After all these years of sanctions, war, and costs imposed on the people, if you are to give up the uranium and the strait, then why did you play with the people's livelihoods and the blood of the martyrs for so long?"
State media aired footage on Friday of armed convoys moving through Tehran's streets, waving flags of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi, and other groups. The video showed women and children operating heavy machine guns mounted on pickup trucks during a rally in downtown Tehran.
The state-imposed internet shutdown continues to severely damage Iran's economy, having wiped out millions of jobs, steel factories, and other infrastructure. The back-and-forth between Trump and Iranian officials led to a drop in oil prices before Western markets closed on Friday and increased volatility in the Iranian currency. The rial traded at about 1.46 million to the US dollar on Saturday morning but shot up to 1.51 million after the IRGC's announcement of the renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Source: www.aljazeera.com