In a meeting with Arab leaders in the Persian Gulf on April 7, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the United States was willing to work with Iran in a “new arrangement” to address issues of contention such as Iran’s ballistic missiles. The comments have irked a number of Iranian officials, even those who have been supportive of the direct talks with the United States to resolve issues over the country’s nuclear program.

“Iran will not negotiate with anyone over its defensive power,” said Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Regarding Kerry’s suggestion and the possibility of another comprehensive agreement between Iran and the world powers in the vein of the nuclear agreement, Velayati said, “It has no relation to Mr. Kerry to discuss Iran’s defensive powers.”

Velayati, who was one of the first top Iranian officials who publicly criticized the hard-line tactics of previous nuclear negotiators and has thrown his support behind the nuclear deal, continued, “Iran has reached this level of power through self-sufficiency and will not ask Mr. Kerry [or anyone else] for permission to defend itself.”

Iran’s defense minister, Hossein Dehghan, was far less diplomatic in his response to Kerry’s comments. “He should know not to speak nonsense,” Dehghan said April 9. He accused Kerry of using fear over Iran’s missile programs in order to sell more weapons to the countries in the region. The US has sold $33 billion in weapons to Gulf countries since May 2015. Dehghan said that if the United States was truly after “prosperity, peace and stability” in the Middle East, it should leave the region.