Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said American threats against Iran produce the opposite of their intended effect, as US nuclear envoy Steve Witkoff publicly questioned why Tehran had not "submitted" despite sustained pressure from Washington, his media service reported on February 22.

Earlier, Witkoff, speaking on Fox News and referring to the deployment of US naval forces to the region, said President Donald Trump had asked why Iran had not capitulated, given the scale of pressure being applied.

Khamenei warned that a weapon capable of sending a US aircraft carrier "to the bottom of the sea" is more dangerous than the carrier itself, as he dismissed American threats and insisted Iran would never abandon its nuclear rights.

Speaking to thousands of people from Tabriz and East Azerbaijan province, Khamenei said: "An aircraft carrier is a dangerous device, but more dangerous than it is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea."

He said the United States knew it could not withstand the consequences of military action against Iran. "The army that considers itself the strongest in the world may receive such a hard slap that it cannot get back up," he said.

Khamenei rejected US calls for nuclear negotiations in which the outcome is decided in advance, calling it "wrong and foolish." He said Washington's insistence that Iran must abandon uranium enrichment as a precondition for talks was "a dead end" for the Americans.

"Nuclear energy is our absolute right," he said, adding that enrichment rights were recognised for all countries under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) rules and that US interference in the matter was evidence of "disordered thinking."

The Supreme Leader described the United States as an empire in decline, citing its domestic political and economic difficulties as signs of erosion. He said American threats had the opposite of their intended effect, strengthening rather than weakening Iranian public resolve.

On Iran's economy, Khamenei called on the government to redouble efforts to control inflation and halt the depreciation of the national currency, describing both as "illogical" and expressing confidence they would be corrected.

He also told Iranians to go about their daily lives without anxiety. "If a threat exists, the systems to neutralise that threat also exist," he said.

Prior to the Supreme Leader's comments, Iran said it will not hand control of its oil and mineral resources to the United States, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on February 22, though he left open the possibility of American firms participating in the country's energy sector as contractors.

The comments see Iran drawing a red line in the nuclear talks with Washington. Tehran says any economic quid pro quo cannot look like the US “owning” or controlling Iran’s hydrocarbons and minerals, even if American firms are allowed in as service providers.

The official said US companies were welcome to take part in the development of Iranian oil and gas fields, but only in a contractor capacity, stopping short of any arrangement that would grant Washington oversight of the Islamic Republic's natural resources.

The remarks came as Iran and the US have been engaged in indirect nuclear talks, with Tehran insisting that its right to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must be recognised as part of any agreement.

In mid‑February, CNN reported that in the back‑channel nuclear talks, there had been discussion of granting US companies privileged access to developing Iran’s oil, gas and rare earths as part of a broader deal on sanctions.

Russian media, including TASS, picked this up and framed it as Washington seeking access or “control” over Iran’s mineral resources in return for a nuclear agreement.

Domestically, any suggestion that the US is being given privileged or quasi‑sovereign control over oil, gas or rare earths would be toxic in Iran, evoking memories of the Anglo‑Iranian Oil Company and pre‑1953 concessions, which later led to the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.