FILE - In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a rally commemorating anniversary of 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Islamic clerics to power, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, file)
FILE - In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a rally commemorating anniversary of 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the late pro-U.S. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Islamic clerics to power, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, file)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter President Donald Trump sent to the country’s supreme leader.
President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s response, delivered via the sultanate of Oman, left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington. However, such talks have made no progress since Mr. Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
In the years since, regional tensions have boiled over into attacks at sea and on land. Then came the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which saw Israel target militant group leaders across Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance.” Now, as the U.S. conducts intense airstrikes targeting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen, the risk of military action targeting Iran’s nuclear program remains on the table.
“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Mr. Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. “They must prove that they can build trust.”
The White House, the State Department and other officials offered no immediate reaction to the announcement. However, Mr. Trump said before Mr. Pezeshkian’s comments he was considering military action and secondary tariffs if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,” Mr. Trump said in a comment aired Sunday by NBC News.
Having Mr. Pezeshkian announce the decision shows just how much has changed in Iran since his election half a year ago after he campaigned on a promise to re-engage with the West.
Since Mr. Trump’s election and the resumption of his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran, Iran’s rial currency has gone into a freefall. Mr. Pezeshkian had left open talks up until Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came down hard on Mr. Trump in February and warned talks “are not intelligent, wise or honorable” with his administration. The Iranian president then immediately toughened his own remarks on the U.S.
Mr. Trump’s letter arrived in Tehran on March 12. Though announcing he wrote it in a television interview, Mr. Trump offered little detail on what he exactly told the supreme leader.
Mr. Trump’s letter came as both Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near weapons-grade levels of 60% purity — something only done by atomic-armed nations.
Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb. A report in February, however, by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.
Iran’s reluctance to deal with Mr. Trump likely also takes root in his ordering the attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in a Baghdad drone strike in January 2020. The U.S. has said Iran plotted to assassinate Mr. Trump over that prior to his election this November, something Tehran denied though officials have threatened him.
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