President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran has refused to negotiate a nuclear deal with the United States, days after his US counterpart Donald Trumpsent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, expressing his willingness to negotiate a deal.
In a strong remark, Pezeshkian said Iran would not negotiate while being ‘threatened’ by the US, and told Trump to ‘do whatever the hell you want.’
“It is unacceptable for us that they (the US) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you (Trump). Do whatever the hell you want,” Iran’s state media quoted Pezeshkian as saying.
The Iranian President’s statement follows Supreme Leader Khamenei’s declaration that they would not be ‘bullied’ into negotiations.
Trump’s letter to Khamenei
Trump disclosed during a Fox Business interview last week that he had written to Khamenei, and said he hoped Iran would come to the negotiating table or ‘it will be very ugly for them.’
“The other alternative is we have to do something, because you can’t let them have nuclear weapons,” he added.
However, the White House is yet to confirm the specifics of the letter, including whether it was directly addressed to Khamenei.
Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Iran
While expressing openness to a deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the ‘maximum pressure’ campaign he applied in his first term to ‘isolate’ the Islamic Republic from the global economy, and drive its oil exports down towards zero.
Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it has been ‘dramatically’ accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has warned.
The Asian nation has accelerated its nuclear work since 2019, a year after then-President Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.
(With Reuters inputs)
