Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said negotiations to “bully the country” call for negotiations after U.S. President Donald Trump urged him to reach a nuclear deal.
Trump told Fox News this week that he wrote a letter to Khamenei, adding: “There are two ways to deal with Iran: military, or you have an agreement. I would rather have an agreement because I don’t want to hurt Iran.”
“I said, ‘I hope you have negotiations because it will be much better for Iran,’ I think they want to receive this letter – another option is we have to do something because you can’t get them nuclear weapons,” Trump added.
It is not clear whether Khamenei received the letter, but his comments did not directly mention Trump, which amounted to a sharp rejection of pressure.
“Some bully states insist on negotiating not to solve the problem, but to rule and impose their expectations,” Iranian media outlet said on Saturday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely not accept their request,” Khamenei added during a meeting with the heads of three government branches in Tehran.
Trump withdrew the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran during his first term and ordered a strike against Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.
Since his return to power, Trump has resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran in an effort to isolate the country economically and diplomatically.
The president had previously said he wanted to reach a new deal with Iran, but Iran’s information was mixed, with Khamenei saying last month that the talks with the United States were “not smart.”
Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful.
Earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed at a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia that Russia has proposed to participate in nuclear negotiations between the United States and Iran
