President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran might be willing to negotiate was met with a swift and sharp rebuke from Tehran, with top Iranian officials labeling the claim “delusional” and dismissing any possibility of talks amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign.
Ali Larjani, secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, fired off a post on X late Sunday, calling Trump’s statements “delusional fantasies” and accusing the president of plunging the Middle East into chaos while worrying about rising American casualties.
“Four U.S. service members have already been killed since Operation Epic Fury began with Israel on Saturday,” Larjani wrote. “With his delusional actions, he turned his self-made ‘America First’ slogan into ‘Israel First’ and sacrificed American soldiers for Israel’s power-hungry ambitions.”
Minutes later, Larjani denied a report from The Wall Street Journal suggesting that he had reached out to the U.S. through Omani mediators to resume nuclear talks. “We will not negotiate with the United States,” he emphasized.
The strikes carried out by U.S. and Israeli forces, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several top military and political officials, have sparked widespread retaliatory attacks by Iran and its regional proxies. Hezbollah in Lebanon, for example, launched projectiles at northern Israel, prompting counterstrikes that killed Hussein Makled, the head of Hezbollah’s intelligence unit. According to the Lebanese Public Health Ministry, Israeli strikes killed 31 people and injured 149.
In Israel, an Iranian missile strike on a synagogue bomb shelter in Beit Shemesh killed nine people, Haaretz reported. Meanwhile, Iran has reported at least 555 deaths from U.S. and Israeli airstrikes as of Monday morning, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
The United Nations condemned a strike on a girls’ primary school in Minab, Iran, that killed more than 100 people, including numerous children. Responsibility for the attack remains unclear.
“Trump’s wishful thinking has dragged the whole region into an unnecessary war,” Larjani wrote Monday morning on X. “He is now rightly worried about more American casualties. It is indeed very sad that he is sacrificing American treasure and blood to advance [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s illegitimate expansionist ambitions.”
