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TEHRAN, November 9, 2026 — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, had ordered officials to end a state of “neither war nor peace,” while insisting that Tehran would negotiate only with dignity and would not yield to coercion.
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 72nd anniversary of the Iran Dairy Industries Company, Mr Pezeshkian said Iran was prepared to resolve outstanding issues through talks, according to Tasnim News Agency and the Tehran Times. “We can negotiate with dignity and bring the issue to an end with dignity,” he said. He added that logic dictated Iran should avoid war if it could secure its rights through negotiations, but stressed: “We will not surrender to force and bullying.” Recalling his address to the United Nations General Assembly, he said: “We seek our rights, but we will not submit to coercion.”
The comments came on the same day that United States President Donald Trump, after meeting Qatar’s prime minister in Washington, spoke of “positive momentum” toward ending the conflict. Official clips of those remarks were posted by the White House Rapid Response account on X. Iranian officials struck a sharper tone, rejecting suggestions that negotiations with Washington were already under way on terms set in the United States.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council secretary, Mohsen Rezaei, wrote on X: “The war on Iran has already wrecked the US government. But Washington flails like a desperate gambler. FOLD YOUR HAND. STOP manufacturing FAKE NEWS about imaginary talks. Stop denying the West Asian NEW ORDER. Time to SURRENDER to the seven conditions Iran has repeatedly set out.” Reuters reported that Iran’s proposal to end the war involves an end to the United States blockade of its ports, the lifting of some sanctions and a halt to bombing, in return for Tehran stopping its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with talks on its nuclear programme and other sanctions to follow.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei defended a shortened two-day version of that offer at his weekly press conference on Monday, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday described Tehran’s conditions as “outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic.” “Is it unreasonable that Iran demands that US illegal sanctions and its naval blockade must be lifted before negotiations start and that the war should end on all fronts?” Mr Baghaei asked, according to CNA, which carried a Reuters report of the briefing.
Mr Rubio also said he did not believe a diplomatic breakthrough was imminent. “I wouldn’t say we’re on the verge of a breakthrough,” he said, according to Iran International, adding that President Trump preferred a diplomatic solution but that one was not always possible. A senior United Arab Emirates official, Anwar Gargash, echoed the cautious outlook on Monday, saying a comprehensive political settlement between the United States and Iran appeared difficult. “We should… prepare for a long period of uncertainty in which neither a decisive resolution nor stable regional order can be taken for granted,” he said, according to Reuters.
Qatar has been a principal mediator, shuttling messages between the two sides. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, met Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Monday after visiting Tehran last week, and said on X that the discussions on advancing US-Iran talks had been “positive.” Those accounts of progress are disputed in Tehran, where Mr Rezaei described reports of talks as “imaginary.”
The conflict, which began on February 28, 2026, is now more than eight months old. Washington has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports and recently announced Task Force Iron Gate to tighten pressure on land routes. Iranian state media said United States forces struck Qeshm Island overnight from November 8 to 9, a claim Washington has not addressed. The gap between Mr Trump’s talk of momentum, Iran’s insistence on its conditions, and Mr Rubio’s warning that a breakthrough is not close leaves the two sides far apart on how any settlement would begin.
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