"Iran will not accept pressure to enter negotiations," the country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday, a day after US President Donald Trump revealed he had sent a letter to the Iranian leadership to negotiate a new nuclear deal.
In an interview with Fox Business, Trump stressed that "there are two ways to deal with Iran: militarily or through a deal," which if achieved would prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
According to Iranian state media, Khamenei, in a meeting with senior Iranian officials, noted that Washington's real goal is not to resolve disputes, but to impose its own conditions.
"The insistence of some governments that intimidate negotiations is not aimed at resolving issues, but at imposing and dominating," he declared.
"For them, the talks are a mechanism to push forward new demands. It's not just about Iran's nuclear program. Iran will not accept their conditions," he underlined.
As Reuters points out, despite expressing willingness for a new deal with Tehran, Trump has reinstated the "maximum pressure" policy he implemented during his first term, aiming to isolate Iran from the global economy and reduce its oil exports to zero.
During his first presidential term (2017-2021), Trump withdrew the United States from the international agreement signed between Iran and major powers, which imposed strict restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Since the US withdrawal in 2018 and the reimposition of US sanctions, Iran has violated and exceeded many of the terms of the deal. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, has warned that time for diplomacy is running out as Tehran continues to accelerate uranium enrichment to levels approaching nuclear weapons quality. Meanwhile, the Iranian government insists that its nuclear program serves only peaceful purposes. (A2 Televizion)
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