DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s president mentioned Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the USA over its quickly advancing nuclear program, providing Tehran’s first response to a letter President 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 opportunity of oblique negotiations with Washington.
Nonetheless, 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 army motion concentrating on Iran’s nuclear program stays on the desk.
“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian mentioned in televised remarks. “They must prove that they can build trust.”
The White Home supplied no rapid response to the announcement.
Trump’s letter got here as each Israel and the USA have warned they may by no means let Iran purchase a nuclear weapon, resulting in fears of a army confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at close to weapons-grade ranges — one thing solely completed 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.
Since Trump returned to the White Home, his administration has persistently mentioned that Iran have to be prevented from buying nuclear weapons.
A report in February, nonetheless, by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog mentioned Iran has accelerated its manufacturing of close to weapons-grade uranium.
Trump additionally ordered the assault that killed Iran’s high normal in a Baghdad drone strike in January 2020.
