Iran maintains tough rhetoric on Israel and US, even while seeking nuclear deal
While committed to talks, Tehran airs missile test footage, hangs banner of Israel covered by targets in shape of Yemeni dagger, and calls out US defense secretary’s threats
Iran is talking tough — while still wanting to talk more with the United States over a possible nuclear deal.
In the last few days, Tehran has backed an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that slipped through Israel’s missile defenses to strike near Ben Gurion International Airport.
It aired footage of its own ballistic missile test while its defense minister called out threats by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against the Islamic Republic.
And an organization linked to its paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unveiled a new mural with a map of Israel overlaid by possible missile targets in the shape of a Yemeni jambiyya, an ornamental dagger worn by Yemeni men.
But all the while, Iran maintains it wants to reach a nuclear deal with the US after talks scheduled to take place last weekend in Rome didn’t happen. That’s even as Trump administration officials continue to insist that Tehran must give up all its ability to enrich uranium in order to receive sanction relief — something Iran repeatedly has said is a nonstarter for the negotiations.
(The United States and other Western countries have long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons — a claim Tehran denies, insisting that its atomic program is solely for civilian purposes. But Iran, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction, has ramped up its enrichment of uranium to 60 percent purity, which has no peaceful application, and has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities.)
Israel-Hamas war changes equation for Iran
All this together can feel contradictory. But this is the position where Iran now finds itself after having been ascendant in the Mideast with its self-described Axis of Resistance, countries and terror groups finding common cause against Israel and the US.
That changed with the massacre led by the Hamas terror group in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 others taken hostage back to the Gaza Strip. Israel launched a devastating war aimed at destroying Hamas in Gaza and freeing the hostages that rages on even today — and may be further escalating after Israel approved plans Monday to capture the entire Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified amount of time.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Iran says it has "successfully" tested a new ballistic missile that it claims can reach Israel and penetrate some of the most advanced missile-defense systems in the world. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/9dslBFc1t9
— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) May 5, 2025
Israel has also said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
In the course of the war, Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and other Iran-backed terrorists have been beaten back by Israeli attacks. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, long backed by Iran, saw his family’s over 50-year rule end in December as rebels swept the country.
That’s left Iran with just Yemen’s Houthi rebels, though they too now face an intensified campaign of strikes by the Trump administration.
Iran carefully applauds Houthi strike on Israel
The strike Sunday on Ben Gurion repeatedly earned highlights in Iranian state media. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry made a point to insist that the attack had “been an independent decision” by the group.
Expert opinion varies on just how much influence Iran wields over the Houthis. However, Tehran has been instrumental in arming the Houthis over Yemen’s decade-long war in spite of a United Nations arms embargo.
“The Yemeni people, out of their human feelings and religious solidarity with the Palestinians, and also to defend themselves in the face of continuous aggression by America, have taken some measures,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday.
Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh called out comments by his American counterpart, who had warned that Iran would “pay the CONSEQUENCE” for arming the Houthis with weapons.
“I advise the American threatening officials, especially the newcomer defense minister of the country, to read the history of Iran in the recent four decades,” the general said. “If they read, they will notice that they should not speak to Iran using the language of threats.”
Iran has not, however, responded to Israeli airstrikes targeting its air defenses and ballistic missile program in October. Those strikes were in response to a massive ballistic missile attack by Iran earlier that month.
Nuclear deal remains a top Iranian priority
But getting to a new nuclear deal with the US, which could see Tehran limit its enrichment and stockpile of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions, remains a priority for Iran. Its troubled rial currency, once over 1 million to $1, has strengthened dramatically on just the talks alone to 840,000 to $1.
The two sides still appear a long way from any deal, however, even as time ticks away. Iranian media broadly described a two-month deadline imposed by US President Donald Trump in his initial letter sent to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump said he wrote the letter on March 5, which made it to Iran via an Emirati diplomat on March 12.
Meanwhile, the US campaign on Yemen and Israel’s escalation against Hamas in Gaza continue to squeeze Tehran.
That’s on top of American officials, including Trump, threatening sanctions on anyone who buys Iranian crude oil, as well as following a new, harder line saying Iran shouldn’t be able to enrich uranium at all. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly encouraged Trump to unilaterally withdraw Washington from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, has also been pushing for the same.
Iran likely has been trying to get messages to the US despite last weekend’s planned talks in Rome being postponed. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi flew to Islamabad to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar. A readout from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the men discussed the nuclear negotiations.
Araghchi got a colder reception from Kaja Kallas, the foreign policy chief of the European Union. While European nations have had warmer ties to Iran in the past, Tehran’s arming of Russia in its war on Ukraine has angered many in the EU.
“I called on Iran to stop military support to Russia and raised concerns over detained EU citizens and human rights,” Kallas wrote Monday on the social platform X. “EU-Iran ties hinge on progress in all areas.”
The Times of Israel Community.