Pezeshkian: Iran Won't Back Down, Wants Rights Through Talks

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Iran Won't Back Down From Its Position, but Wants Rights Through Talks, Not War: President Pezeshkian

The Pakistan Times — Islamabad, August 8, 2026

Marking two years since taking office, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian used the occasion to defend his government's ongoing talks with the United States, something that's still a politically sensitive subject back home given how the war with the US and Israel started in the first place. He said representatives from the judiciary, parliament, the armed forces, and other state institutions are all part of the negotiating team specifically so it's clear the whole country is united on this, not just his own administration acting alone.

That framing matters a lot in Iran's political context right now. Ever since the June memorandum was signed, hardliners at home have gone after Pezeshkian for even sitting down with Washington, especially after Israel and the US killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the February strikes that started this whole war. Bringing the judiciary and military into the negotiating room isn't just a bureaucratic detail, it's Pezeshkian trying to show critics that this isn't him going soft on America alone.

Pezeshkian has been remarkably consistent on this point for over a year now, going back to well before the war even began. He's repeated some version of the same message again and again: talking to the US is not surrender, and Iran isn't giving up its rights just because it's willing to negotiate. What's changed is the stakes. Back in 2025, this was about the nuclear programme. Now it's about ending an active war that killed Iran's own supreme leader and dragged in strikes across half the Gulf.

Current sticking points in the actual negotiations, based on recent reporting, still center heavily on the Strait of Hormuz and whether Iran gets to keep any level of uranium enrichment at all, with Washington pushing for zero enrichment while Tehran continues resisting that specific demand. Iran's current Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said he holds a different view from Pezeshkian on the terms of the June memorandum, though he's also said Pezeshkian personally assured him that the rights of the Iranian nation would be protected throughout the talks, which is part of why the deal got signed at all.

Pezeshkian's core message on his two-year mark comes down to this: war hasn't gotten Iran anything except more dead officials and a damaged economy, and if there's a path to securing the same national interests through negotiation instead, that's the path his government intends to keep walking, even while insisting Iran isn't bending on what it considers its fundamental rights.

Read More: Pralhad Joshi Appointed as India’s Education Minister Amid Political Storm and Opposition Criticism

Sources: GlobalSecurity.org,

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