JERUSALEM—President Donald Trump’s overtures through a letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme chief, Ali Khamenei, to jump-start talks on dismantling Tehran’s illicit nuclear weapons program, had been met with rejection by the theocratic state on Sunday, following Trump’s newest risk to the regime.
Trump instructed NBC on Saturday that “If they do not make a deal, there might be bombing,” he mentioned. “However there’s an opportunity that if they do not make a deal, that I’ll do secondary tariffs on them like I did 4 years in the past.”
Trump added the U.S. and officers from the Islamic Republic are “speaking.”
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian mentioned on Sunday “We don’t keep away from talks; it’s the breach of guarantees that has brought on points for us to date,” in accordance with the Related Press. He added, “They need to show that they’ll construct belief.” The White Home didn’t instantly reply to Iran’s rejection of the talks, the AP reported.
Pezeshkian nonetheless famous that in Iran’s response to the letter that oblique negotiations with the Trump administration had been nonetheless attainable.
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Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei addresses the media throughout elections in Tehran, Iran, on Might 10, 2024. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu through Getty Pictures)
The obvious return of Iran’s regime to its customary playbook of opaque oblique talks between the U.S. and Tehran’s rulers raises questions on whether or not Trump would greenlight army strikes to eradicate Iran’s huge nuclear weapons program.
After Iran launched two huge missile and drone assaults on Israel final yr, Trump might additionally assist the Jewish state in knocking out Iran’s nuclear weapons equipment.
Oblique talks between the U.S. and the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism, in accordance with Democratic and Republican administrations, haven’t compelled Iran to desert its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Jason Brodsky, the coverage director of United In opposition to Nuclear Iran (UANI), instructed Fox Information Digital that the Iranians “don’t wish to present President Trump with a casus belli to strike Iran’s nuclear program. There could also be oblique and private responses by means of numerous intermediaries. I believe some Iranian officers understand a fissure amongst President Trump’s nationwide safety crew on Iran. This explains Iran’s overseas minister’s remark in latest days that President Trump’s letter to the supreme chief poses challenges in addition to alternatives.”
Iran’s first functioning nuclear energy plant in Bushehr, Iran, on April 28, 2024. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto through Getty Pictures)
Brodsky mentioned, “These Iranian officers search to bypass skilled palms like President Trump’s nationwide safety advisor and secretary of state, who’ve been demanding the dismantlement of Iran’s total nuclear program in line with President Trump’s long-standing and rightful place on this problem, and domesticate people round President Trump who would not have expertise with Iran or are thought of non-traditional conservatives who can be extra receptive to their entrees.”
Trump promised that “unhealthy issues” would occur to Iran if the regime doesn’t come to the desk for nuclear negotiations. “My massive choice is that we work it out with Iran, but when we don’t work it out, unhealthy issues are gonna occur to Iran,” he mentioned on Friday.
Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, simply shy of the 90% weapons-grade. Specialists say it might have a nuclear weapon inside weeks if it had been to take the ultimate steps to constructing one. Fox Information Digital reported in late March that Iran’s regime has enriched sufficient uranium to manufacture six nuclear weapons, in accordance with a U.N. atomic company report.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 24, 2024. (Reuters/Caitlin Ochs)
Alireza Nader, an Iranian-American professional on Iran, instructed Fox Information Digital, “Khamenei could also be signaling that he’s not fascinated with negotiations, however his regime desperately wants financial reduction. In any other case, one other common rebellion in opposition to him might begin. Khamenei doesn’t have the playing cards.”
There may be widespread discontent amongst Iranians in opposition to the rule of 85-year-old Khamenei.
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President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meet on the White Home, Feb. 4, 2025. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
Iran’s has upped the ante ever since Trump told FOX Business he despatched a letter to Khamenei. Iran has disclosed video footage of its underground “missile metropolis.”
Trump additionally instructed FOX Enterprise, “I might reasonably negotiate a deal.”
He continued, “I am undecided that everyone agrees with me, however we are able to make a deal that may be simply pretty much as good as when you received militarily. However the time is going on now, the time is arising.
“One thing goes to occur come what may. I hope that Iran, and I’ve written them a letter, saying I hope you are going to negotiate as a result of if we’ve got to go in militarily, it’ll be a horrible factor for them.”
Brodsky mentioned, “Which means the Islamic Republic could dangle a JCPOA-like deal, with minor modifications from the earlier 2015 settlement. Iranian media has been hyping such an association.”
In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Obama-negotiated Joint Complete Plan of Motion deal as a result of, he argued, that the settlement failed to make sure Iran wouldn’t construct nuclear weapons and didn’t codify restrictions in opposition to Tehran’s missile program and sponsorship of Islamist terrorism.
IRAN’S LEADER WARNS US COULD RECEIVE ‘SEVERE SLAPS’ FOLLOWING TRUMP’S THREATS TO HOUTHIS
The Basis for Protection of Democracies has analyzed the place Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is situated. (Picture supplied by the Basis for Protection of Democracies (FDD) )
Brodsky mentioned, “These Iranian officers consider they’ll lure the Trump administration into this association after which President Trump will wave a magic wand and convey the whole Republican Social gathering together with Democrats to assist the deal and make it extra politically sturdy than the 2015 JCPOA. That is all regardless of President Trump’s constant and powerful document in rejecting the JCPOA framework. It displays desperation in Tehran and a need to purchase time with one other failed diplomatic gambit. Nevertheless it’s vital to have eyes broad open right here as to the video games the Iranians will (and are already) enjoying.”
Whereas Trump’s director of nationwide intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Tuesday earlier than the Senate Intelligence Committee that the intelligence neighborhood “continues to evaluate that Iran will not be constructing a nuclear weapon and Supreme Chief Khamanei has not approved the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” she did word that Iran elevated its enriched uranium stockpile.
In sharp distinction to U.S. intelligence since 2003, Fox Information Digital has beforehand reported that European intelligence businesses consider Iran is working towards testing an atomic weapon, and sought illicit know-how for its nuclear weapons program.
Counter-proliferation consultants, just like the distinguished physicist and nuclear specialist David Albright, have instructed Fox Information that European intelligence establishments use an up to date definition of development of weapons of mass destruction to evaluate Iran’s progress in distinction to America’s alleged obsolete definition.
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Fox Information Digital despatched press queries to the U.S. State Division and the Nationwide Safety Council.
Fox Information Digital’s Morgan Phillips and the Related Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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