Iran announced on Wednesday that a delegation led by a senior figure from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) delivered a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baqaei, told the semi-official news agency ISNA that Anwar Gargash, the UAE President’s diplomatic advisor, delivered the letter.
Last week, Trump announced that he had sent a letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proposing talks to reach an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program.
“We cannot allow them to have any nuclear weapons,” Trump said, adding that “something will happen very soon.”
“We hope to have a peace deal,” he said, seemingly referring to a peaceful resolution of tensions surrounding Tehran’s nuclear program.
“I’m simply saying that I would prefer a peace deal to the alternative. But the alternative will solve the problem,” he added.
Khamenei is opposed to direct talks with the Trump administration and said, after the announcement from Trump last week, that Tehran would not engage in discussions with a “provoking government.”
“Such talks do not aim to resolve issues. Their purpose is to exert dominance and impose what they want,” Khamenei said in a speech during Ramadan on March 8.
Without directly mentioning the U.S., he said that “provoking governments” are not only focused on Iran’s nuclear program but also “make new demands” targeting the Islamic Republic’s defense capabilities and regional activities.
“Negotiations are a tool to impose new demands. Iran will never meet these new demands,” Khamenei said.
The Iranian leader has accused Trump of a lack of trust, citing his withdrawal from a historic nuclear deal in 2018 and the re-imposition of sanctions that had been lifted as part of the deal.
After abandoning the agreement in 2018, Trump accepted an offer from then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to mediate, and in 2019, he asked Abe to deliver a letter to Khamenei. The Iranian leader rejected the letter, stating that it “was not worthy” of a response.
Russia, one of the signatories of the original nuclear deal, has expressed interest in mediating talks between Tehran and Washington, although many have questioned whether Moscow could be an impartial mediator.
Referring to Moscow’s talks with Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that Iran’s nuclear program had been discussed, and that Trump had concluded that Tehran’s support for its representatives is a “precondition for a new nuclear agreement,” according to VOA.
Meanwhile, China has announced that it will host a trilateral meeting with Iran and Russia on March 14, and among the topics to be discussed will be “exchanging views on the Iranian nuclear issue.”
