JERUSALEM – President Donald Trump's overture via letters to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei met with a refusal by the priesthood state on Sunday following Trump's latest threats.
“If they don't make a deal, there's going to be a bombing,” he told NBC on Saturday. “But if they don't make a deal, they could put secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
Trump added the US, adding that Islamic Republic officials are “talking.”
According to the Associated Press, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, “Please don't avoid consultations. It's a violation of our promise that caused us problems.” He added, “They have to prove they can build trust.” The White House did not immediately respond to Iran's rejection of talks, the Associated Press reported.
Pezeschkian still pointed out in Iran's response to a letter that indirect negotiations with the Trump administration were still possible.
The Waltz told Iran to abandon its nuclear program, or “there will be consequences.”
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will address the media during the election held in Tehran, Iran on May 10, 2024. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The obvious return of the Iranian administration to the standard playbook of opaque and indirect talks between the US and Tehranian rulers raises questions about whether Trump will turn military strikes green to eradicate Iran's vast nuclear weapons program.
After Iran launched two massive missile and drone attacks against Israel last year, Trump was able to help the Jewish state knock out Iran's nuclear weapons equipment.
According to democratic and Republican administrations, indirect talks between the United States and terrorism, the world's worst national sponsor, have not forced Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Jason Brozky, United's policy director for nuclear Iran (UANI), said that Iranians “don't want to offer President Trump a Casas Beli to attack Iran's nuclear program. There may be indirect and private responses through various intermediaries. Letters to the Supreme Leader bring challenges and opportunities.”
Trump has proven Trump as explosive reports confirm Iran oversees “political and military issues.”
On April 28, 2024, the first functioning nuclear power plant in Bucher, Iran. (Morteza Nikoubazl/Nurphoto via Getty Images)
“These Iranian authorities are trying to bypass experienced hands like President Trump's national security adviser and Secretary of State. They are calling for the dismantling of the entire Iranian nuclear program to maintain President Trump's long-standing legitimate position on the issue, and are cultivating individuals around President Trump, who have no experience with Iran,” Brozky said.
Trump has promised that “bad things” will happen to Iran if the administration does not come to the table for nuclear negotiations. “My big preference is that we will solve it with Iran, but if we don't solve it, bad things will happen to Iran,” he said Friday.
Iran enriches uranium to 60%, making it slightly shy of 90% weapon grades. Experts say that if they can take final steps to build one, they can have nuclear weapons within weeks. Fox News Digital reported in late March that the Iranian regime had enriched enough uranium to produce six nuclear weapons, according to a report by the UN Atomic Agency.
On September 24, 2024, Iranian President Masuud Pezeskian was located at the United Nations headquarters in New York. (Reuters/Katelyn OCHS)
Alileza Nader, an Iranian-American expert in Iran, told Fox News Digital:
There is widespread dissatisfaction among Iranians with the 85-year-old Khamenei rules.
Trump revives “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet at the White House on February 4th, 2025. (Reuters/Elizabeth Franz)
Iran has raised ante ever since saying Trump had sent a letter to Khamenei to Fox Business. Iran has revealed video footage of an underground “missile city.”
Trump also told Fox Business that “I would rather negotiate a deal.”
He continued, “I don't know if anyone agrees with me, but we can make a good deal as if you were a military winner.
“Something will happen in some way. I hope for Iran, and I hope I wrote them, because if we have to go militarily, it will be terrible for them.”
“That means the Islamic Republic may hang deals like the JCPOA and wrap small revisions from previous 2015 contracts. Iranian media exaggerate such arrangements,” said Brodsky.
In 2018, Trump withdrew from the joint comprehensive plan of action that Obama had been denied. Because he argued that the agreement ensured that Iran did not build nuclear weapons and did not codify restrictions on Tehran's missile programmes and sponsors of Islamist terrorism.
Iranian leaders warn Trump will be able to receive a “severe slap” following the threat to the Houssis
The Foundation for Democracy Defence has analyzed where Iran's nuclear infrastructure is. (Images provided by the Foundation for Democracy (FDD))
Brozky said, “These Iranian officials believe they can lure the Trump administration into this arrangement, and President Trump waving a magic wand to bring Democrats along with the Democrats, making him more politically durable than the 2015 JCPO. A diplomatic gambit. But when it comes to the games that Iranians play, it's important to open their eyes wide here.”
Trump's National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard on Tuesday testified before the Senate Intelligence Email Committee that the Intelligence Email community “continues to assess Iran as not building nuclear weapons, but Kahanei has not approved the nuclear weapons programme that was stopped in 2003,” she said Iran has increased its rich uranium stockpile.
In contrast to US Intelligence since 2003, Fox News Digital previously reported that the European Intelligence Agency believes Iran is working on testing atomic weapons and is seeking illegal technology in its nuclear weapons program.
Antinutrition experts such as renowned physicist and nuclear expert David Albright told Fox News that European intelligence agency will use the latest definition of the construction of weapons of mass destruction to assess Iran's progress in contrast to the US's abolished definition.
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Fox News Digital has sent a prequel to the US State Department and the National Security Council.
Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
