Across Iran and the diaspora, many stayed up through the night to follow the speech via satellite television and livestreams, many hoping to detect signals about the likelihood of a US military strike in the coming days. <\/p>\n
By morning, Persian-language social media reflected a swirl of alarm, anticipation and skepticism.<\/p>\n
In his address, Trump accused Tehran and its proxy forces of spreading \u201cterrorism and hatred\u201d and said Iran continues to pursue missile and nuclear capabilities despite years of US pressure. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
For some Iranians, the balance of menace and ambiguity less than two days before the third round of talks between Tehran and Washington suggested escalation was near.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump issued the order for a military strike and put the final nail in the coffin of the Islamic Republic,\u201d one user wrote on X. \u201cIn the coming hours, we will certainly witness very important events.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another focused on Trump\u2019s reference to ballistic missiles\u2014an issue Tehran insists should not be part of current negotiations\u2014arguing it signaled the likelihood of military action may be greater than that of a deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Trump explicitly declares that the missiles of this criminal cult will soon reach American soil, it means that all paths of diplomacy have reached their final dead end,\u201d a third wrote.<\/p>\n
Yet others pushed back against what they saw as over-interpretation.<\/p>\n
One user described the speech as \u201ca bucket of cold water poured over warmongers,\u201d arguing that Trump largely repeated familiar themes without announcing new measures. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis speech, in no way, met the expectations of those who were waiting for a new step,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Another suggested Washington\u2019s military buildup in the region told a different story than the speech itself. \u201cThe negotiations are less about reaching an agreement and more a tool for managing public opinion and buying time to prepare militarily,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
The divergence in reactions underscored the high stakes ahead of Thursday\u2019s talks in Geneva, widely seen as a potentially decisive round amid reports that Washington has set informal timelines for progress.<\/p>\n
Iranian officials sought to project steadiness.<\/p>\n
President Masoud Pezeshkian said negotiations were proceeding under the guidance of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and expressed hope the country could move beyond its current state of \u201cneither war nor peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi struck a similar dual tone. \u201c<\/p>\n
The Islamic Republic is prepared for both war and peace,\u201d he told India Today, warning that any confrontation could quickly escalate into a \u201cdevastating\u201d regional conflict while insisting that a \u201cfair, balanced, and just\u201d agreement remains attainable.<\/p>\n
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, however, warned that Iran would respond forcefully if the United States took military action while talks are underway.<\/p>\n
Outside official circles, analysts also offered competing readings. Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran, wrote on X that Trump appeared to be laying \u201cpublic groundwork\u201d for a military strike.<\/p>\n
While there was \u201ca brief nod to diplomacy,\u201d he said, most of the speech underscored \u201cthe threat and the lethality of the regime,\u201d suggesting limited optimism about negotiations.<\/p>\n
As interpretations ricocheted across platforms, one post seemed to capture the broader mood: \u201cThese words reeked of war. May God preserve Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Across Iran and the diaspora, many stayed up through the night to follow the speech via satellite television…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,3188,3294,3290,3287,3288,3291,3285,3289,3286,3292,239,3293],"class_list":{"0":"post-20164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-geneva","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-and-china","11":"tag-iran-covid","12":"tag-iran-economy","13":"tag-iran-government","14":"tag-iran-media-iran-and-the-united-states","15":"tag-iran-news","16":"tag-iran-nuclear","17":"tag-iran-politics","18":"tag-iran-us","19":"tag-middle-east","20":"tag-us-sanctions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}