ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran’s foreign ministry on Wednesday rejected claims by US President Donald Trump that Tehran possesses long-range missiles capable of targeting Europe and US bases overseas, dismissing the American president’s words as a “repetition of ‘big lies.’” 

Trump said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that Iran has “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America.” 

Hours later, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei pushed back on Trump’s remarks. “Whatever they're alleging in regards 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',” he wrote in an X post. 

“No one should be fooled by these prominent untruths,” Baghaei warned, accusing the US of “systematically” using Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbel’s popular maxim: “’Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth’,” to serve its “sinister disinformation & misinformation campaign against the Nation of Iran.” 

The exchange of remarks comes as another round of US-Iran nuclear talks is set to be held in Geneva on Thursday.

In his address, Trump said that Washington is negotiating with Tehran because it wants to make a deal, but, “They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon.’”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday said that Tehran is seeking to reach a nuclear agreement with Washington “in the shortest possible time,” but that progress would depend on addressing “mutual interests.” 

Despite the renewed talks, Trump has ordered a massive buildup of military forces in the region and repeatedly threatened to intervene in Iran once again. The US president gave Iran a 10-day ultimatum to reach a nuclear deal on Thursday, warning that “really bad things” could happen if Tehran fails to reach a meaningful agreement.