Iran Claims U.S.-Iran Agreement Marks ‘America’s Defeat’ As Trump Says Tehran Made Major Concessions

by Emmitt Barry, Worthy News Washington D.C. Bureau Chief

(Worthy News) – Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf declared Wednesday that the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding amounted to “a declaration of America’s defeat,” even as President Donald Trump said Tehran had been pressured into making major concessions after months of conflict.

Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Baku, Azerbaijan, Ghalibaf claimed Iran’s armed forces imposed “heavy costs on the United States and the so-called Israeli regime” during the 110-day war, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency.

The Islamic Republic, he said, forced Washington to “retreat both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”

Ghalibaf also said Iran continues to view the withdrawal of American forces from the Middle East as a “strategic objective,” accusing Washington’s regional presence of being a “source of instability.”

His remarks appeared aimed not only at the United States and Israel, but also at the broader Islamic world. Ghalibaf extended what he called Iran’s “hand of brotherhood and cooperation to all Islamic countries,” while emphasizing Tehran’s desire to build security and economic agreements with regional states, including Gulf nations.

“For us, a ceasefire in Lebanon is as important as a ceasefire in Iran, and ending the war in Lebanon is as important as ending the war in Iran,” Ghalibaf said.

He also defended Palestinian terrorism as “an expression of a nation’s legitimate resistance in the face of occupation,” while arguing that lasting security in the region cannot be achieved without what he called a “just resolution” of the Palestinian issue.

The comments underscored Tehran’s continued effort to present itself as the regional champion of the so-called “axis of resistance,” even as the Trump administration says Iran has been forced to accept inspections and other concessions under pressure.

Trump said Tuesday night that Iran had been “ready to go down for the fall” and was “willing to give us practically anything,” while sharply criticizing the Senate for passing a war powers resolution directing him to remove American forces from hostilities with Tehran.

The president said the resolution sent the wrong message to “the number one sponser [sic] of terror in the world,” suggesting it weakened U.S. leverage at a crucial moment.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump said he lifted the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports after Tehran agreed to open its nuclear facilities to inspections and made other “major concessions.”

“However, all ships are remaining in place should it be necessary to reinstitute the blockade, which seems, at this point, highly unlikely,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Ghalibaf, however, cast the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in very different terms. He said conditions in the strategic waterway “will never go back to the way they were before the war,” insisting that Iran would administer the strait while observing international regulations.

Although the memorandum calls for the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, Ghalibaf claimed Tehran reopened it “according to its own terms and timeline.”

“This is the power of the Islamic Republic,” he said. “We forced Trump to amend the tweet he had published. This is the result of combining our hard and soft power.”

The dueling claims reveal the fragile nature of the U.S.-Iran framework. Washington is presenting the agreement as the result of successful military and diplomatic pressure, while Tehran is portraying it as proof that the Islamic Republic survived the war, maintained regional leverage and forced America to retreat.

For Israel and America’s allies in the Middle East, the deeper question is whether the agreement will restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions and proxy network — or simply give Tehran time to regroup while claiming victory before the Islamic world.

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