Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has again rejected the idea of talks with the US in the face of increasing sanctions, comments that came after President Trump said he has tried to contact the Iranian leader.
In remarks on Saturday, Khamenei didn’t name the US directly but referred to it as a “bully government.”
“Some bully governments – I really don’t know of any more appropriate term for some foreign figures and leaders than the word bullying – insist on negotiations,” Khamenei said at a meeting of Iranian officials. “Their negotiations are not aimed at solving problems, they aim at domination.”
On Friday, Trump said in an interview that he had sent a letter to Khamenei, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has yet to receive it. Trump also hinted at potential military action against Iran if a deal isn’t reached.
“Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” the president said.
Trump wants a deal on Iran’s nuclear program even though he’s acknowledged that Iranian leadership doesn’t want a nuclear bomb. But Trump’s re-imposition of his so-called “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran has made the possibility of diplomacy less likely.
The US also wants to impose restrictions on Iran’s conventional missile program and its relationship with its allies in the region, ideas Khamenei rejected on Saturday.
“They will be about defense capabilities, about international capabilities of the country. (They will urge Iran) not to do (certain) things, not to meet some certain people, not to go to a certain place, not to produce some items, your missile range should not be more than a certain distance. Is it possible for anybody to accept these?” Khamenei said.
Last year, Khamenei expressed an openness to direct talks with the US, saying there was “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” He made the comments shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in.
Pezeshkian vowed during his campaign to engage directly with Western countries in an effort to get sanctions relief, and Khamenei’s comments appeared to give him the green light to pursue the idea. But since Trump re-imposed “maximum pressure,” both Khamenei and Pezeshkian have discouraged the idea of negotiations with the US.
“If the US were sincere about negotiations, why did they sanction us?” Pezeshkian said on February 10. He added that Tehran “does not seek war…but will not yield to foreign pressure.”
