Trump says he sent message to Iran’s leader urging negotiations, but Tehran says it hasn’t received a letter.
Iran says it has yet to receive a letter from President Donald Trump after the US leader said he had sent one seeking talks with the country’s leadership about its nuclear programme.
“We have not received such a letter so far,” a spokesman for Iran’s embassy said on Friday.
The comments come after Trump said he sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking negotiations over a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear programme.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the prospect of nuclear negotiations with the US if Tehran remains under heavy sanctions from Washington.
“We will not enter any direct negotiations with the US so long as they continue their maximum pressure policy and their threats,” Araghchi told the AFP news agency.
Since taking office in January, Trump’s administration has levied sanctions against Iran – including on the country’s oil network – as part of his “maximum pressure” strategy.
Iranian state media immediately picked up on Trump’s comments, given in portions of a Fox Business News interview aired on Friday, though there was no confirmation from Khamenei’s office that any letter had been received. The interview is expected to air in full on Sunday.
It remained unclear how the 85-year-old supreme leader would react, given that former President Barack Obama had kept his letters to Khamenei secret before the start of negotiations that led to Tehran’s 2015 deal with world powers.
Khamenei in a speech last August opened the door to 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.
Trump’s acknowledgement comes as both Israel and the United States have warned they will not let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels – a purity only sought by atomic-armed nations.
“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. He later added that he had sent the letter “yesterday” in the interview, which was filmed on Thursday.
The White House confirmed Trump’s comments, saying that he sent a letter to Iran’s leaders seeking to negotiate a nuclear deal.
“I would rather negotiate a deal. I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily,” Trump added. “But the time is happening now. The time is coming up. Something’s going to happen one way or the other.”
“I hope you’re going to negotiate because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran and I think they want to get that letter,” Trump said. “The other alternative is we have to do something because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump offered no details of what, if anything, was specifically offered to Iran in the letter.
Iran has long maintained its programme is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb as tensions are high with the US over its sanctions and with Israel as a shaky ceasefire holds in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
US intelligence agencies assess 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”.
Since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has consistently said that Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. A report last month, however, by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Iran has accelerated its production of near-weapons-grade uranium.