Iran chief rejects nuclear talks with US as Trump letter arrives

Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the concept of negotiations with the US over its nuclear programme, as Tehran confirmed receiving a letter from President Donald Trump.

Final week, Trump stated the letter proposed talks on a deal that may forestall Iran buying nuclear weapons and avert potential army motion.

Though Khamenei stated he had not seen the letter, which was delivered by an official from the United Arab Emirates, he dismissed it as a “deception of public opinion”.

“Once we know they will not honour it, what is the level of negotiating?” he requested, referring to Trump’s choice to desert the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal throughout his first time period.

He warned that Iran would retaliate within the occasion of strikes on its nuclear services.

“Iran shouldn’t be searching for struggle, but when the Individuals or their brokers take a flawed step, our response shall be decisive and sure, and the one who will undergo essentially the most hurt is America,” he stated.

The supreme chief, who has the ultimate say on all state issues, additionally reiterated that Iran was “not desirous about nuclear weapons”.

Ten years in the past, the nation agreed a historic cope with six world powers – China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the US – to restrict its nuclear actions and permit monitoring by inspectors from the Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA) in return for sanctions aid.

Nevertheless, Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the accord in 2018 and reinstated crippling US financial sanctions. He labelled it “the worst deal in historical past”, saying it did too little to cease Iran’s potential pathway to constructing a nuclear bomb.

Iran responded by more and more breaching the phrases of the deal, significantly these limiting the manufacturing of enriched uranium, which can be utilized to provide gasoline for nuclear energy crops but additionally to construct nuclear weapons.

The IAEA stated final month that Iran had stockpiled nearly 275kg (606lb) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is close to weapons grade. That will theoretically be sufficient, if enriched to 90%, for six nuclear bombs.

Each the US and Israel have warned that they’ll by no means permit Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Israel has threatened to strike Iranian nuclear services if essential.

Final yr, Israel stated it hit a part of Iran’s nuclear programme throughout strikes that it carried out in response to an Iranian missile assault.

In a TV interview broadcast final Friday, Trump stated: “There are two methods Iran could be dealt with: militarily, otherwise you make a deal. I would favor to make a deal, as a result of I am not trying to harm Iran. They’re nice individuals.”

“I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you are going to negotiate,’ as a result of if we now have to go in militarily, it may be a horrible factor for them,” he added.

The White Home has not given any particulars in regards to the contents of the letter, which Iran stated was handed to Overseas Minister Abbas Araqchi by UAE presidential adviser Anwar Gargash.

Though the supreme chief dismissed the concept of negotiations with the US, Iran’s mission to the UN did say in a press release on Sunday that it’d think about talks “if the target is… to handle considerations vis-à-vis any potential militarisation of Iran’s nuclear programme”.

Araqchi additionally stated on Wednesday that nuclear talks with the UK, France and Germany had been “ongoing”, whereas the Chinese language overseas ministry stated China, Russia and Iran would talk about the “Iranian nuclear difficulty” at a trilateral assembly in Beijing on Friday.