Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected a nuclear deal with the “rude, insolent” U.S. that would require the Islamic Republic to stop enriching uranium, one of President Donald Trump’s core requirements for any nuclear agreement.

In a speech at the mausoleum of former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, which was translated and posted on Khamenei’s official X account, the Iranian leader said that Iran’s “enemies have focused all their attention on this very process of uranium enrichment.” 

“A nuclear industry without enrichment capabilities is useless because we would then be dependent on others to obtain fuel for our power plants,” he said. 

Iran’s supreme leader railed against the American demand, saying that it would make his country “reliant on them for radiopharmaceuticals, energy, desalination equipment and in tens of other critical sectors.”  

“The rude, insolent U.S. leaders want this. They’re opposed to progress and self-sufficiency for the Iranian people … Those in power today — the Zionists and the Americans — should know they can’t do a damn thing in this area,” Khamenei stated.

“What the U.S. is demanding is that [Iran] should have no nuclear industry at all and be dependent on them. To the American side and others we say: Why are you interfering and trying to say whether Iran should have uranium enrichment or not? That’s none of your business,” Khamenei argued.

Khamenei’s remarks came a day after Trump posted on Truth Social that “under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM!”

The Trump administration has reportedly been negotiating an interim deal that would allow Iran to enrich uranium to 3% until a final agreement is reached in which the Islamic Republic can no longer enrich its own uranium. Under the terms of the proposal, the U.S. would facilitate the construction of dedicated enrichment plants in the Middle East to provide Iran with uranium for civilian use. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency reportedly sent a confidential report to member states last week that said Iran had increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium by about 50%. Iran is believed to have material that can be converted into about 10 nuclear weapons in less than two weeks, according to U.S. estimates. American intelligence has assessed that it would take Tehran a few months to assemble a nuclear bomb using the weapons-grade fissile material.

President Donald Trump said he’d be open to meeting directly with Iran’s president or Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but also suggested that the U.S. could attack Iran to keep it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, in an interview with Time magazine, released on Friday.

When asked if he would consider such a meeting, the president responded, “Sure.”

Pressed if he is worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could “drag you into a war” with Iran, Trump responded, “No. By the way, he may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in.” The president clarified that he did not mean the U.S. wouldn’t join a war if Israel initiates one: “You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”

Trump further denied reports that he had stopped Israel from carrying out plans to strike Iran, but affirmed that he is unsupportive of an attack without attempting negotiations. “It’s not right. I didn’t stop them. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, because I think we can make a deal without the attack. I hope we can,” he said. “It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, but I didn’t say no. Ultimately I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”

Asked why his administration is revoking visas from and beginning to deport hundreds of foreign students, Trump said, “Tremendous antisemitism at every one of those rallies.” The president said he’s unconcerned about “intimidating students or chilling free speech” through this policy: “They can protest, but they can’t destroy schools like they did with Columbia and others.”

He said he would “look into” having the Department of Justice provide evidence that Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national who was detained by plainclothes federal agents on March 25, has ties to Hamas as the government has alleged, but he’s “not aware of the particular incident.”

On Saudi-Israel normalization, the president said he is confident that Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords, “and by the way, I think it will be full very quickly.”