Ayatollah Responds To Trump’s Big Stick Threats: ‘Go Forward’ With Military Growth

President Trump kicked off the week saying in a Fox interview that ”Iran is very concerned. Iran is very frightened, to be honest with you, because their defense is pretty much gone.” He had provocatively laid out that “I think Iran would love to make a deal and I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them.” 

How is Tehran’s top leadership responding to the “big stick” threat? On Wednesday Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged his country to go forward with bolstering military development.

Khamenei said “progress should not be stopped” in the defense sector, amid ongoing threats from Israel and the US.  “We cannot be satisfied,” Khamenei stressed. “Say that we previously set a limit for the accuracy of our missiles, but we now feel this limit is no longer enough. We have to go forward.”

“Today, our defensive power is well known, our enemies are afraid of this. This is very important for our country,” he added, at a moment Trump is warning no option is off the table to prevent the Iranians from achieving nuclear weapons status.

Trump had further said in that Fox interview that thwarting Iran’s development of nuclear weapons could be achieved either “with bombs or with a written piece of paper.” The warning came the week following his restoring ‘maximum pressure’ and new oil-targeted sanctions with an executive order.

Iran has meanwhile protested Trump’s threatening remarks, saying in a letter submitted to the UN Security Council, “These reckless and inflammatory statements flagrantly violate international law and the UN Charter, particularly Article 2(4), which prohibits threats or use of force against sovereign states.”

On Monday Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had charged that the US is not “sincere” about negotiations with Iran following last week’s new sanctions.

“If the US were sincere about negotiations, why did they sanction us?” Pezeshkian posed in a speech in Tehran commemorating the 46th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic revolution.

When Trump signed the maximum pressure order, he actually said something which will be welcomed by Tehran, and could be an opening for legitimate restored negotiations:

While signing a new presidential memorandum calling for maximum pressure sanctions on Iran, Trump poured cold water on it and openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the policy.

“So this is one that I am torn about,” he said during Tuesday’s signing ceremony. “I am signing this, but I am unhappy to do it.”

Yet, this was the least stunning moment of his comments about Iran during a gaggle with journalists in the Oval Office. Even more remarkable was what he said about the intent — or lack thereof — of decision-makers in Iran.

“There are many people at the top ranks of Iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon,” he declared.

Trump is of course fully aware of recent CIA findings stating its belief Iran has not yet decided to pursue nukes. The Islamic Republic has long claimed its program is merely for peaceful energy development for domestic consumption.

Iran has been showing of its new toys of late…

Iran has released footage of its unmanned submarine launching an advanced loitering munition at a land-based target. pic.twitter.com/Bt1P82Bzpw

— Iran Military (@IRIran_Military) February 12, 2025

But things in the Middle East have drastically changed and realigned – and not in Iran’s favor – given Assad has fallen and Hezbollah’s leadership was decimated by Israel. There are fears Iran could ramp up its Uranium enrichment to weapons grade. Hawks have maintained that this trajectory is assured at this point.