CNN
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Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the call for negotiations by the “bullying state” aims to control others rather than to resolve the issue.
Trump told Fox News this week that he wrote to Khamenei, saying, “There are two ways we can handle Iran: military, or you do a deal. I prefer to do a deal because I’m not trying to hurt Iran.”
“I hope we will negotiate because it will be much better for Iran.” They want to get the letter. The alternative is that we can’t have nuclear weapons, so we have to do something,” Trump added.
It remains unclear whether Khamenei received the letter, but his comments amount to a pointy rejection of pressure without direct reference to Trump.
“The arguments against some of the bullying countries regarding negotiations are not to resolve the issue, but to control and impose their own expectations,” Khamenei said on Saturday.
“Islamic republic of Iran will definitely not accept their demands,” Khamenei added during a meeting with the heads of three branches of Tehran’s government.
During his first term in office, Trump withdrew from the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran and ordered a US-led strike against Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani, drawing Tehran’s rage.
Since he returned to power, Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign in Iran. This is an effort to isolate the country economically and diplomatically.
The president had previously said he wanted to join talks for a new contract with Iran, but messages from Iran are mixed in, and Khamenei said last month that talks with the US were “not smart.”
Iran has long argued that the nuclear program is peace.
Earlier this week, during a meeting with US officials in Saudi Arabia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia has offered to take part in nuclear talks between the US and Iran.