Iran Says Ready to Reveal New Military Cards

(MENAFN) Iran is signaling an increasingly combative posture ahead of a potential second round of diplomatic talks with the United States, with senior officials warning they are ready to escalate militarily while flatly rejecting any negotiations conducted "under the shadow of threats."

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf leveled sharp criticism at U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of attempting to reduce diplomacy to an act of capitulation. In a post on X, Ghalibaf declared that Trump's imposition of a blockade and alleged ceasefire violations were designed to reframe the negotiating process as a submission exercise.

"Trump, by imposing a siege and violating the ceasefire, seeks to turn this negotiating table – in his own imagination – into a table of surrender or to justify renewed warmongering. We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield," Ghalibaf wrote.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian echoed that defiance, condemning what he described as the "non-constructive and contradictory" behavior of American officials. He characterized Washington's approach as a demand for full submission — one that Tehran would refuse, asserting that Iranians "will not bow to coercion."

The escalating rhetoric comes as a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire approaches its Wednesday expiration deadline. An inaugural round of negotiations in Islamabad last weekend yielded no tangible progress, after which Trump moved to impose a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports — a move Tehran has condemned as a provocation.

Trump issued an explicit threat on Sunday, warning that a failure to accept what he called a "fair and reasonable deal" would prompt the U.S. to "knock out every single power plant, and every single bridge, in Iran."

The White House had initially announced the second round of talks for Monday but spent much of the day awaiting confirmation that Iran would dispatch its delegation. media reported that U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, together with Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, was expected to depart for Islamabad no later than Tuesday morning.

According to media, Iranian negotiators had been deliberately delaying their response, facing internal pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to adopt a harder stance and condition any return to the table on the prior lifting of the American blockade. Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey had all urged Tehran to re-engage, and Iran's negotiating team ultimately received authorization from the country's supreme leader late Monday night to proceed.

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