The Islamic Republic is reportedly prepared to snub proposed nuclear talks this weekend, as a widening gap between Washington and Tehran threatens to end nuclear diplomacy. Is President Trump’s threat that “something bad” will happen next on the Iranian horizon?    

While Secretary Rubio insists that America will not allow uranium enrichment on Iranian soil, Tehran’s top decision maker, Ali Khamenei, calls that demand “nonsense,” and officials at the Iranian capital are threatening to walk away from the talks.      

There are “ongoing — I hope to be ongoing — negotiations, because the alternative would be far worse in my view, but maybe necessary, but we hope that we can reach an agreement with Iran,” Mr. Rubio said in a Senate testimony Tuesday. The talks, he acknowledged, “will not be easy.”

Publicly, at least, the mullahs are playing hard to get. “Iran has ‘not accepted’ an invitation put forward by mediator Oman for a fifth round of talks due to take place in Rome this Friday,” the National, an Abu Dhabi-based publication, is reporting from Tehran, citing an unidentified Iranian official.

That is a “cheap stunt,” the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, Jason Brodsky, tells the Sun. The Iranians “need this negotiating process to continue for as long as possible because it’s a shield from pressure. They may complain and throw a tantrum, but fundamentally they will not walk away from the table. These talks are the only thing that stands in the way of a military strike and more sanctions.”

The Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Mr. Khamenei, is using the starkest language to push back against America since Mr. Trump announced that he would attempt through diplomacy to stop the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons. On Tuesday Mr. Khamenei attended a memorial service at Tehran marking one year since the death of President Raisi.

Raisi did not believe in talks with America, and “we don’t think these negotiations will yield results now either,” Mr. Khamanei said, according to his X account. “We don’t know what will happen,” he added. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who leads the talks with Mr. Trump’s special Mideast envoy, Steven Witkoff, nodded in agreement, and attendants chanted: “Death to America.” 

“The Americans who are talking in these indirect negotiations should avoid talking nonsense,” Mr. Khamenei said. “For them to say, ‘We won’t allow Iran to enrich uranium,’ is utter nonsense. We aren’t waiting for anyone’s permission. The Islamic Republic has certain policies, and it will pursue them.”

Washington officials, though, are adamant that Iran must dismantle its nuclear installations and end even low-level enrichment activity on its soil. “Once you know how to enrich at any level, all you need is time to be able to enrich at a higher level,” Mr. Rubio told the Senate Tuesday.

“It is our view that they want enrichment as a deterrent. They believe that it makes them a threshold nuclear power, and as a result, becomes untouchable.” Iran’s neighbors “range from uncomfortable all the way to view as an existential threat the belief that Iran could ever be in a position of maintaining its enrichment capability in the long term that could quickly be weaponized,” Mr. Rubio added. 

One country that views a nuclear Iran as an existential threat, Israel, has long argued that negotiations with the mullahs are unlikely to stop their rush to a bomb. Israelis are said to have prepared kinetic measures to reverse the Iranian nuclear advances, or even obliterate them completely. 

Britain, France, and Germany, meanwhile, are contemplating a move at the United Nations Security Council to revive all global sanctions that were imposed on Iran before the 2015 nuclear deal. They can undo the council resolution that enshrined the Obama-era deal in international law. The resolution, though, dictates that a “snap back” option will expire by October of this year. 

Fearing military strikes or renewed sanctions that would set back the Islamic Republic’s already faltering economy, Tehran seems to prefer protracted negotiations over a quick pact, even as Mr. Trump is signaling that a decision must be made soon. 

An American embargo could punish Iran, Mr. Trump says, while he has also indicated he could reluctantly use military force because “they cannot have a bomb.” Therefore, he said last week while visiting the United Arab Emirates, the Iranians “know they have to move quickly, or something bad is going to happen.”

“I think that’s a credible threat,” Mr. Brodsky says. “I think October 2025, when the snapback mechanism is due to expire, will be an inflection point.”