DUBAI, UAE — Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejects direct talks with the United States over its rapidly expanding nuclear program, in Tehran’s first response to a letter from US President Donald Trump to the country’s supreme leader.
President Masoud Pezeshkian stated that Iran’s response, delivered through the Sultanate of Oman, opened the door to indirect negotiations with Washington. However, such talks have not progressed since Trump unilaterally withdrew from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
In the years since, regional tensions have escalated into attacks at sea and on land. Then came the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, during which Israel targeted militant group leaders from Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance.”
Now, as the United States conducts intense airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the possibility of military action against Iran’s nuclear program remains.
“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the broken promises that have caused problems for us so far,” Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. “They must prove that they can build trust.”
In response to Pezeshkian, the US State Department stated that “President Trump has been clear: the United States cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
“The president expressed his willingness to discuss a deal with Iran,” according to the statement. “If the Iranian regime does not want a deal, the president is clear, he will pursue other options, which will be very bad for Iran.”
Trump discussed dealing with Iran while flying from Florida to Washington on Sunday evening. “We’ll see if we can get something done,” he told reporters. “And if not, it’s going to be a bad situation.”
“I would prefer a deal to the other alternative which I think everybody in this plane knows what that is, and that’s never going to be pretty,” according to him.
Iran’s position hardens after Trump’s letter
Having Pezeshkian announce the decision demonstrates how much has changed in Iran since his election a half-year ago, when he campaigned on a promise to reconnect with the West.
Iran’s rial has plummeted since Trump’s election and the resumption of his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Pezeshkian had left open discussions until Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed Trump in February, warning that talks with his administration would be “not intelligent, wise, or honorable.” The Iranian president then immediately toughened his own remarks about the United States.
Meanwhile, Iran has been sending mixed messages for several weeks. In videos from Friday’s Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations, people in the crowds instructed participants to only shout, “Death to Israel!” “Death to America” was often heard.
A video of an underground missile base unveiled by Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard showed its troops stepping on an Israeli flag painted on the ground, though there was no American flag, as is common in such propaganda videos.
However, Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, published an article last week that listed U.S. bases in the Middle East as potential targets for attack. The list included Camp Thunder Cove on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where the United States bases stealth B-2 bombers that are likely to be used in Yemen.
“The Americans themselves know how vulnerable they are,” Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf warned on Friday. “If they violate Iranian sovereignty, it will be like a spark in a gunpowder depot, igniting the entire region. In such a case, their bases and allies will not be safe.”
Tehran’s two recent direct attacks on Israel with ballistic missiles and drones, however, resulted in negligible damage, while Israel responded by destroying Iranian air defense systems.
Iran’s rejection is the latest in tensions over nuclear program
Trump’s letter arrived in Tehran on March 12. Despite announcing that he wrote it in a television interview, Trump provided little detail about what he told the Supreme Leader.
“I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing,'” Trump admitted during the interview.
The move recalled Trump’s letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his first term, which resulted in face-to-face meetings but no agreement to limit Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile program capable of reaching the continental United States.
The last time Trump attempted to send a letter to Khamenei via the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2019, the supreme leader mocked the effort.
Trump’s letter came as both Israel and the United States have warned that Iran will never be able to obtain a nuclear weapon, raising the prospect of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium to near-weapons-grade levels of 60% purity, which is only done by nuclear-armed nations.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, despite increasing threats from its officials to pursue the bomb. However, a February report from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, stated that Iran has increased its production of uranium that is close to weapons grade.
Iran’s reluctance to deal with Trump is likely due to his ordering the attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike on January 2020. The United States has claimed that Iran plotted to assassinate Trump prior to his November election, which Tehran has denied, despite threats from officials.
