The Trump administration is employing “Nazi” propaganda tactics to spread “big lies” about the Iranian regime, a senior Iranian official claimed one day before scheduled nuclear negotiations between the two governments.
“Professional liars are good at creating the ‘illusion of truth,’” Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Iran, wrote on X Wednesday morning just hours after President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address, where he made a case for action against Iran. Baqaei accused Israel of joining the United States in using “Nazi” propaganda tactics.
“‘Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth,’ is a law of propaganda coined by Nazi Joseph Goebbels,” Baqaei wrote on X. “This is now systematically used by the U.S. administration and the war profiteers encircling it, particularly the genocidal Israeli regime, to serve their sinister disinformation [and] misinformation campaign against the Nation of Iran.”
United States and Iranian officials are scheduled to hold talks in Geneva on Thursday over Iran’s nuclear program, and Trump says he prefers to solve the controversy through “diplomacy.” However, he pledged Tuesday night he “will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror … to have a nuclear weapon.”
“Since they seized control of that proud nation 47 years ago, the regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate,” Trump said of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The U.S. has moved a significant number of military resources into the Middle East since the start of the year, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, is working its way toward the region and is currently docked at the Mediterranean island of Crete.
The buildup of U.S. military resources in the Middle East comes about eight months after the U.S. struck Iran’s three key nuclear facilities during Operation Midnight Hammer, which “obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” according to the president. But now, Trump says Iran is working to rebuild its nuclear program.
“After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue. They’re starting it all over,” Trump said during Tuesday’s address.
Satellite images over Iran show new activity at key Iranian military sites, and images show Iran has buried the tunnel entrances at one of the nuclear sites the U.S. bombed last year, Reuters reports.
Trump claims Iran has “sinister ambitions” to restart its nuclear program and has developed weapons that could reach U.S. military bases in Europe. The president also accused the Iranian regime of killing “32,000 protesters in their own country” during anti-regime protests that began at the end of December.
“We are in negotiations with them; they want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump said.
Iran’s response to Trump’s remarks casts doubt on the ability of the two nations to reach a diplomatic solution during negotiations Thursday.
“Whatever they’re alleging in regard to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baqaei said. “No one should be fooled by these prominent untruths.”
Trump has a “number of tools” at his disposal to ensure Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, Vice President JD Vance said on Fox News channel’s “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday morning, adding that he hopes Iran takes this into consideration during negotiations on Thursday.
The U.S. has leveled a number of sanctions on Iran and Iranian officials in recent weeks. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced new sanctions on “over 30 individuals, entities, and vessels enabling illicit Iranian petroleum sales and Iran’s ballistic missile and advanced conventional weapons production.”
“Iran exploits financial systems to sell illicit oil, launder the proceeds, procure components for its nuclear and conventional weapons programs, and support its terrorist proxies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“Under President Trump’s strong leadership, Treasury will continue to put maximum pressure on Iran to target the regime’s weapons capabilities and support for terrorism, which it has prioritized over the lives of the Iranian people,” Bessent said ahead of Thursday’s negotiations.