US House Speaker Mike Johnson has claimed that some Iranians consider lying to people they disagree with to be part of their religion, as he defended President Donald Trump’s decision to wage war against Iran.
Johnson made the controversial remarks while speaking to reporters on Tuesday, September 1, as he responded to questions about the growing unpopularity of the Trump administration’s policies, including the US decision to join Israel in attacking Iran.
Defending the president, Johnson said Trump had “steady hands at the wheel” and argued that Iran could not be trusted during negotiations.
“The problem has been — and the reason we’ve been frustrated — is that the Iranians simply cannot be trusted,” Johnson said, according to Al Jazeera.
He added that some Iranians apparently believed they could lie to people with whom they disagreed, describing the alleged practice as a major obstacle to negotiations.
However, lying is prohibited in Islam, and Johnson’s office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for clarification or comment on the statement.
The US-Israel war against Iran has faced growing opposition among Americans. A University of Massachusetts poll released on Monday found that 54 percent of Americans disapproved of US military action against Iran.
The conflict has also created economic pressure, particularly after Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major global energy route. The disruption has contributed to higher oil and gas prices in the United States and other parts of the world.
The Trump administration and its allies have repeatedly defended the war by arguing that Iran posed an imminent nuclear threat.
Johnson repeated that argument on Tuesday, saying the conflict was necessary because Iran was allegedly close to developing a nuclear weapon.
However, that claim has been challenged by previous US intelligence assessments. In June 2025, then-US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told lawmakers that the intelligence community assessed that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon and that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had not authorised the resumption of a nuclear weapons programme.
Despite that assessment, the US military bombed three major Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities on June 22, 2025. President Trump subsequently claimed that the strikes had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear programme.
The US and Israel launched another major offensive against Iran in late February 2026, triggering a wider regional conflict. Trump had initially suggested the war would last no more than six weeks, but the fighting has continued into its seventh month.
Johnson also said the United States needed greater international cooperation to restore stability around the Strait of Hormuz and other strategic waterways.
He argued that NATO allies and Arab countries in the region had a significant interest in keeping international commerce and energy markets stable.
“Other countries around the world, our NATO allies, the Arab states in the region — they have a bigger stake in that than Americans do,” Johnson said, expressing confidence that they would assist efforts to keep the waterways open.
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