TEHRAN, June 6: Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to Iran’s Leader on international affairs, said lasting peace can only be achieved through a balance of power, warning against reliance on “empty promises” or compromise with adversaries.
In a post on X on Saturday, Velayati said Western concerns over Iran’s rising influence have materialized, adding that “a new geometry of power” has emerged.
He cited reports from Western media suggesting the U.S. may seek a temporary deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, describing this as evidence of “the failure of threatening Iran” and “the victory of resistance.”
Velayati cautioned regional actors against weakening resistance through political compromise, saying diplomatic wishful thinking carries high costs and that durable peace stems from a balance of power rather than “mirage-like pledges.”
His remarks were seen as indirectly addressing Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who has called for the disarmament of Hezbollah and recently criticized Iran’s regional role.
Aoun has accused Iran of using Lebanon as a “bargaining chip” in its negotiations with the United States.
Iran has consistently said that a regional security framework should be established in the Gulf region without the presence of the U.S.
“It’s not your country, it’s our country,” Aoun said, addressing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the main backers of Hezbollah. He added that Iran is using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the U.S. during an exclusive interview with CNN.
Addressing Iran, he said: “You are not trying to help us the people of Lebanon are paying the price for the sake of your own interest,” adding that “our interests do not coincide with your interests.”
Lebanon’s Aoun is compelled by circumstances despite a ceasefire between Tehran and Washington in April. Subsequent negotiations have left Beirut increasingly entangled in the wider regional conflict, after Iran conditioned an agreement to end the war with the U.S. on Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon.
Meanwhile, as negotiations continue with Iran on a memorandum of understanding, with the nuclear issue as a major sticking point, President Trump said that only the U.S. and China have the capability to retrieve enriched uranium from Iran’s buried nuclear sites, adding that the facilities were so badly damaged by strikes that recovery would be extremely difficult.
“We attacked their nuclear sites and they were obliterated,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
“It turned out that CNN was wrong. They said, ‘Well, maybe they weren’t hit that hard.’ They were hit so hard nobody knows if you could even get it out,” he added.
Trump went on to argue that only the U.S. and China have the equipment capable of reaching it.
“But the only ones that have the capability of getting it out are us and China,” Trump said.
“We’re the only ones with that kind of equipment that’s powerful enough to go down that deep into a mountain. That mountain crushed it.” “That mountain literally collapsed on top of it.”
Referring to assessments by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said the agency agreed that it would be extremely difficult to access.
“They think it’s a very, very hard thing to get to, but we’ll get it anyway. But we’re the only ones – and China, I believe, too – that have the capability,” he said. (UNI)
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