Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian announced on Saturday that his country would not bow to pressure from world powers during nuclear talks with the United States, Reuters reported, citing Iranian media.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bend, but we will not bend despite all the problems they pose for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was considering a limited attack on Iran. Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that the aim of such an attack would be to force Iran to meet demands regarding an agreement on its nuclear program. According to the newspaper, Trump could issue such an order in the coming days.
On Thursday, during the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council, Trump emphasized that he hoped to reach an agreement with Iran and that he would find out whether it was possible within 10 days. He then set this time horizon at 10-15 days.
The US and Iran resumed talks on the nuclear deal at the beginning of February, conducted through Oman. After the first round of negotiations, on February 6, Reuters reported that Iran rejected American calls to completely stop uranium enrichment.
The authorities in Tehran declare that their nuclear program is exclusively civilian and peaceful. The West fears that Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons, as evidenced by, among others, enriching large amounts of uranium to a level that is close to military needs.
Satellite photos show Iran preparing for an attack
Photos from December 6, 2025 to January 24, 2026 show repairs (following the June attacks by Israel and the US) and activities aimed at filling in the entrances to the tunnels leading to the complex where a significant portion of Iran's enriched uranium is allegedly stored near Isfahan.
The photos show “efforts to prepare for an attack” by the United States, David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), told Sky News.
The ISIS Institute said on February 9 that “filling in the entrances to the tunnels would help limit the damage of a possible airstrike, and would also make access more difficult in the event of an attack by special forces to seize or destroy highly enriched uranium that may be located there.”
Work on securing nuclear facilities, primarily tunnels, is also visible in photos of infrastructure near the city of Natanz, the British station added.
“Some of these activities, especially in Isfahan, indicate that there is still something valuable inside,” Albright said.
On January 22, ISIS analysis showed progress in the construction of a “concrete sarcophagus” around the newly built military facility in Parchin, as also shown in satellite images of the facility from January 24.
Another facility being renovated is the missile base in Tabriz. It is one of Iran's main missile bases and warehouses. Satellite images show that buildings there have been fully repaired since the 2025 Israeli attacks.
Sky News recalled that on January 19, Russian and Iranian forces also conducted joint exercises in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean. This proves both Iran's military readiness and its influence on key shipping lanes, the station noted.
Mark Cancian, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), suggested that “Russia is trying to help its partner, but its options are extremely limited because it is completely absorbed in the war in Ukraine.”
“Israel has a right to a large part of the Middle East”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in an interview that under biblical interpretation, Israel could claim territory covering much of the Middle East and “there would be nothing wrong with taking it all.”
In a widely reported interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson Huckabee on Friday, Huckabee was asked about Israel's geographic boundaries, which he claims have their source in the Bible.
Carlson asked the diplomat whether Israel had a right to the land that, according to the Book of Genesis, God promised to Abraham's descendants: from the Nile to the Euphrates. This is an area including, among others: present-day Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and parts of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
“I'm not sure we would go that far,” Huckabee said. But he added that “there would be nothing wrong with it if (Israel) took over all this.”
Calling himself a Christian Zionist and a strong defender of Israel, Huckabee later stressed that Israel was not seeking to take over the Middle East and that his earlier statement was “somewhat hyperbole.”
Israeli law does not clearly define the borders of the state. The internationally recognized borders of this country are based on the armistice lines of 1949 (the so-called Green Line) and subsequent peace agreements with Israel – including: with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994.
(PAP)
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