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Pezeshkian says Iran will not bow to pressure amid US nuclear talks

Regional officials say oil-producing Gulf countries are preparing for a possible military confrontation

AFP/REUTERS February 21, 2026 1 min read

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a visit to the shrine of the leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in southern Tehran, Iran, January 31, 2026. PHOTO: Iran's Presidential website/Reuters

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.

"World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads ... but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us," Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.

Iran and the US are sliding rapidly towards military conflict as hopes fade for a diplomatic solution to their standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme, officials on both sides and diplomats across the Gulf and Europe say.

Iran’s Gulf neighbours and its enemy Israel now consider a conflict to be more likely than a settlement, these sources say, with Washington building up one of its biggest military deployments in the region since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Israel's government believes Tehran and Washington are at an impasse and is making preparations for possible joint military action with the US, though no decision has been made yet on whether to carry out such an operation, said a source familiar with the planning.

It would be the second time the US and Israel have attacked Iran in less than a year, following US and Israeli airstrikes against military and nuclear facilities last June.

Regional officials say oil-producing Gulf countries are preparing for a possible military confrontation that they fear could spin out of control and destabilise the Middle East.