Iran rejects direct talks with US after Trump’s letter

Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian announced on Sunday that the Islamic Republic has rejected direct negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter from President Donald Trump to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Pezeshkian said Iran’s response, delivered via Oman, left the door open for indirect negotiations with Washington.

However, he noted that such talks had made no progress since Trump unilaterally withdrew the US 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”.

Meanwhile, the US has intensified airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, increasing the risk of military action targeting Iran’s nuclear programme.

“We do not avoid talks, but the breach of promises has caused issues for us,” Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. “They must prove that they can build trust.”

The White House has not yet responded to the announcement.

Iran’s position hardens after Trump’s letter        

Pezeshkian’s decision shows just how much has changed in Iran since his election half a year ago after he campaigned on re-engaging with the West.

However, following Trump’s election and the return of his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran, Iran’s rial currency has gone into a freefall.

Pezeshkian had left open talks up until Iran’s 85-year-old Khamenei came down hard on Trump in February, and warned talks “are not intelligent, wise or honourable” with his administration. The Iranian president then immediately toughened his own remarks on the US.

Meanwhile, there have been mixed messages coming from Iran for weeks. Videos from Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations on Friday had people instructing participants to shout “Death to Israel!” Typically, “Death to America” was also heard.

Additionally, a video of an underground missile base unveiled by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard showed its troops stepping on an Israeli flag painted on the ground — though there was no American flag as often seen in such propaganda videos.

Despite this, Press TV, Iran’s English-language state media outlet, published an article last week listing US military bases in the Middle East as possible targets, including Camp Thunder Cove on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where the US has stationed stealth B-2 bombers.

“If they violate Iran’s sovereignty, it will be like a spark in a gunpowder depot, setting the entire region ablaze,” warned Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. “Their bases and allies will not be safe.”

However, Tehran’s two recent direct attacks on Israel with ballistic missiles and drones caused negligible damage, while Israel responded by destroying Iranian air defence systems.

Iran’s rejection is the latest in tensions over nuclear programme     

Trump’s letter arrived in Tehran on March 12. Though announcing he wrote it in a television interview, Trump offered little detail on what he exactly 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 said in the interview.

The move recalled Trump’s letter-writing to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term, which led to face-to-face meetings but no deals to limit Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile programme capable of reaching the continental US.

The last time Trump tried to send a letter to Khamenei, through 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 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 per cent 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 UN’s nuclear watchdog said Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.

Iran’s reluctance to deal with 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 US has said Iran plotted to assassinate Trump over that prior to his election this November, something Tehran denied though officials have threatened him.