The United States is not seeking negotiations with Iran but rather imposing demands on it, the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said, after US President Donald Trump said earlier this week he had sent a letter to the Iranian leadership seeking to initiate talks on a nuclear deal.
Khamenei’s comments on Saturday came after Trump said in an interview with Fox Business that “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Officials in Tehran responded that they had not yet received the letter from Trump.
Speaking during a meeting with senior Iranian officials, Khamenei did not say whether Trump’s letter had indeed been received, but he accused Washington of seeking even greater restrictions than in previous negotiations.
“Some bully governments insist on negotiations,” he said. “But their negotiations are not aimed at solving issues, but to dominate and impose their own expectations,” he said, according to state media.
“For them, negotiation is a means to introduce new demands. The issue is not just about nuclear matters, they raise new expectations that Iran will certainly not accept,” Khamenei added.
“They demand restrictions on the country’s defensive capabilities and international influence, saying: ‘don’t do this, don’t meet that person, don’t produce that item’ or ‘your missile range should not exceed a certain limit,’” he said.
‘Maximum pressure’
Since taking office for his second term in January, Trump has expressed an openness to a new deal with Tehran, but has reinstated an aggressive sanctions campaign and has promised to drive Tehran’s oil exports to zero.
In 2018, Trump first imposed the so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran after withdrawing the US from a landmark 2015 deal between Iran and several Western powers. The agreement had placed strict limits on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Since the US withdrawal, Iran has far surpassed the limits on its nuclear programme laid out in the initial deal. Subsequent efforts by the administration of US President Joe Biden and European leaders to put the agreement back on track proved fruitless.
On Thursday, the US imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry, Iran’s main source of income. The measures targeted firms, ships and individuals affiliated with companies already sanctioned by the US. Under Biden, the US routinely issued such penalties to enforce existing sanctions.
For his part, Khamenei in a speech last August, had opened the door to new talks with the US, saying there is “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy”.
That came after Iran elected reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian in June, who campaigned on promises to negotiate a new deal with world powers, similar to the country’s 2015 deal which Trump withdrew from in 2018.
Meanwhile, Russia said earlier this week it was willing to help mediate new nuclear talks between the US and Iran amid a possible wider thaw in relations between Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
UN watchdog warns time running out
The latest back and forth comes amid warnings from UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi, who has said time is running out for diplomacy to impose new restrictions on Iran’s activities.
Tehran continues to accelerate its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, the UN monitor has said.
Iran has long maintained its programme is for peaceful purposes. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue greater military capabilities as tensions remain high over US sanctions and Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, which remains in a tenuous ceasefire.
Both Israel and the US have warned they will not let Iran acquire nuclear weapons, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels.
US intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran has yet to begin a weapons programme, but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so”.
