US President Donald Trump has revealed that he sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday, expressing his willingness to negotiate a nuclear deal.
Trump said he hoped Iran would come to the negotiating table, in an interview to Fox Business Network on Friday.
“I said I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,” Trump said in the interview.
However, he also warned of alternative actions and said, “The other alternative is we have to do something, because you can’t let them have nuclear weapons.”
“If Iran doesn’t negotiate, it will be very ugly for them. Iran can’t have nukes. Other options are available,” Trump added.
The White House has not yet confirmed the specifics of the letter, including whether it was directly addressed to Khamenei.
Iran, however, has rejected any possibility of talks under pressure. As per the news agency AFP, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Tehran will not negotiate with the US while Trump continues his “maximum pressure” campaign.
“We will not enter any direct negotiations with the US so long as they continue their maximum pressure policy and their threats,” Araghchi said at an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation meeting in Jeddah.
He also dismissed the possibility of Iran’s nuclear programme being destroyed by a military attack, following a threat from Israel. “Iran’s nuclear programme cannot be destroyed through military operations… this is a technology that we have achieved, and the technology is in the brains and cannot be bombed,” he told AFP.
Meanwhile, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov held discussions with Iranian Ambassador Kazem Jalali regarding international efforts to resolve the ongoing situation around Iran’s nuclear program, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
Trump has previously insisted that Iran must not develop nuclear weapons and has advocated for direct negotiations to resolve tensions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
However, diplomatic relations between the two nations have remained strained since the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.