Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday came out swinging at the U.S.’ most recent proposal, which apparently included a call for zero uranium enrichment, to which the Iranian leader said was “100 %” against Tehran’s interests.

The issue of whether the U.S. would push a complete ban on uranium enrichment – a process that is needed to produce nuclear energy as well a warhead – came into question this week after reporting suggested a U.S. proposal submitted to Iran through Omani mediators on Saturday allowed for “low levels” of enrichment.

President Donald Trump appeared to refute this in a social media post this week, and on Wednesday, Khamanei, who did not comment directly on the specifics of the proposal, said that “In the current nuclear talks that are being mediated by Oman, the U.S.’s proposal is 100% against the spirit of ‘We can’.” 

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, left, shakes hands with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Muscat, Oman, on April 12, 2025. (Oman News Agency/ Handout via Reuters)

The Iranian leader said on Wednesday that Iran’s nuclear development has become a source of national pride and claimed, “The number of countries in the world that have achieved a complete nuclear fuel cycle is perhaps fewer than the number of fingers on a person’s two hands. 

“We’re capable of producing nuclear fuel starting from the mine and all the way to the power plant,” he added. 

Iran has also repeatedly claimed it does not intend to develop a nuclear weapon, though its near-weapons-grade enrichment levels and missile program have suggested otherwise and prompted immense concern among international security officials, including the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Khamanei’s comments regarding Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon were among the most fervent he has issued and again called into question Tehran’s claims that it is not looking to make itself the 10th nuclear nation. 

A big banner depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 26, 2024 on the sideline of an exhibition which marks the 44th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war. (Hossein Beris / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP, via Getty Images)

“You Americans possess atomic bombs and have the massive destruction of the world at your disposal,” he said in a series of posts on X. “What business is it of yours whether the Iranian nation should or shouldn’t have uranium enrichment or whether it should or shouldn’t have a nuclear industry?

“Why are you interfering and trying to say whether Iran should have uranium enrichment or not? That’s none of your business,” Khamanei said.