On this picture launched by the Iranian Presidency Workplace, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks throughout a rally commemorating anniversary of 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and introduced Islamic clerics to energy, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025.
AP/Iranian Presidency Workplace
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AP/Iranian Presidency Workplace
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s president mentioned Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the US over its quickly advancing nuclear program, providing Tehran’s first response to a letter President Donald Trump despatched to the nation’s supreme chief.
President Masoud Pezeshkian mentioned Iran’s response, delivered by way of the sultanate of Oman, left open the potential for oblique negotiations with Washington. Nevertheless, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first time period unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear cope with world powers in 2018.
Within the years since, regional tensions have boiled over into assaults at sea and on land. Then got here the Israel-Hamas conflict within the Gaza Strip, which noticed Israel goal militant group leaders throughout Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance.” Now, because the U.S. conducts intense airstrikes concentrating on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen, the danger of navy motion concentrating on Iran’s nuclear program stays on the desk.
“We do not keep away from talks; it is the breach of guarantees that has induced points for us to date,” Pezeshkian mentioned in televised remarks throughout a Cupboard assembly. “They have to show that they will construct belief.”
The White Home, the State Division and different officers provided no quick response to the announcement. Nevertheless, Trump mentioned earlier than Pezeshkian’s feedback he was contemplating navy motion and secondary tariffs if Iran doesn’t comply with a nuclear deal.
“If they do not make a deal, there shall be bombing and it is going to be bombing the likes of which they’ve by no means seen earlier than,” Trump mentioned in a remark aired Sunday by NBC Information.
Iran’s place hardens after Trump’s letter
Having Pezeshkian introduced the choice reveals simply how a lot has modified in Iran since his election half a yr in the past after he campaigned on a promise to re-engage with the West.
Since Trump’s election and the resumption of his “most strain” marketing campaign on Tehran, Iran’s rial forex has gone right into a freefall. Pezeshkian had left open talks up till Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei got here down laborious on Trump in February and warned talks “usually are not clever, smart or honorable” along with his administration. The Iranian president then instantly toughened his personal remarks on the U.S.
In the meantime, there have been blended messages coming from Iran for weeks. Movies from Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations on Friday had folks within the crowds instructing contributors to solely shout: “Loss of life to Israel!” Sometimes, “Loss of life to America” was additionally heard.
A video of an underground missile base unveiled by Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard additionally confirmed its troops stepping on an Israeli flag painted on the bottom — although there was no American flag as usually seen in such propaganda movies.
However Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state tv, printed an article final week that included itemizing U.S. bases within the Center East as attainable targets of assault. The checklist included Camp Thunder Cove on Diego Garcia within the Indian Ocean, the place the U.S. is basing stealth B-2 bombers possible being utilized in Yemen.
“The Individuals themselves understand how susceptible they’re,” warned Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Friday. “In the event that they violate Iran’s sovereignty, it is going to be like a spark in a gunpowder depot, setting your complete area ablaze. In such a state of affairs, their bases and their allies is not going to be protected.”
Nevertheless, Tehran’s two latest direct assaults on Israel with ballistic missiles and drones induced negligible harm, whereas Israel responded by destroying Iranian air protection programs.
Iran’s rejection is the most recent in tensions over nuclear program
Trump’s letter arrived in Tehran on March 12. Although saying he wrote it in a tv interview, Trump provided little element on what he precisely instructed the supreme chief.
“I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you are going to negotiate as a result of if we’ve to go in militarily, it is going to be a horrible factor,'” Trump mentioned within the interview.
The transfer recalled Trump’s letter-writing to North Korean chief Kim Jong Un in his first time period, which led to face-to-face conferences however no offers to restrict Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile program able to reaching the continental U.S.
The final time Trump tried to ship a letter to Khamenei, by means of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2019, the supreme chief mocked the hassle.
Trump’s letter got here as each Israel and the US have warned they are going to by no means let Iran purchase a nuclear weapon, resulting in fears of a navy confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at close to weapons-grade ranges of 60% purity — one thing solely performed by atomic-armed nations.
Iran has lengthy maintained its program is for peaceable functions, whilst its officers more and more threaten to pursue the bomb. A report in February, nonetheless, by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog mentioned Iran has accelerated its manufacturing of close to weapons-grade uranium.
Iran’s reluctance to cope with Trump possible additionally takes root in his ordering the assault that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike in January 2020. The U.S. has mentioned Iran plotted to assassinate Trump over that previous to his election this November, one thing Tehran denied although officers have threatened him.
