President Donald Trump sent a letter to the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, looking for a new agreement with Tehran to contain his nuclear program that advances rapidly and replacing the agreement to which he retired to the United States in his first term in office.
Iranian state media immediately collected Trump's recognition, given in extracts from an interview with Fox Business News broadcast on Friday, although there was no confirmation from Khamenei's office that no letter had been received. The interview is broadcast in its entirety on Sunday.
It was not clear how the 85 -year -old supreme leader would react, since former President Barack Obama had maintained his letters to Khamenei's secret before the start of the negotiations that led to Tehran agreement in 2015 with the world powers.
In comments to journalists at the Oval office later on Friday, Trump did not mention the letter directly, but made an evening, saying: “We have a situation with Iran that will happen very soon. Very, very soon.”
“Hopefully we can have a peace agreement,” Trump said. “I am not speaking by force or weakness. I just say that I prefer to see a peace agreement than the other. But the other will solve the problem. “
It was suggested that the alternative to a negotiated resolution would be for the United States to threaten to intervene in the army in Iran.
Trump's overture occurs when Israel and the United States have warned that they will never let them acquire a nuclear weapon, which causes fears of a military confrontation when Tehran enriches Uranium at close weapons levels, something that only sought nations to atomic armed ones.
In Fox's commercial interview, Trump said: “I wrote a letter that says:” I hope they will negotiate because if we have to enter militarily, it will be something terrible. “He said he had sent the letter on Thursday.
Trump's reach is produced in the midst of tensions
The White House confirmed that Trump's letter to Iran's leaders is looking to negotiate a nuclear agreement. The president's comments in the Oval office echoed his feelings of the interview, which was recorded on Thursday.
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“I prefer to negotiate an agreement. I am not sure that everyone agrees with me, but we can make an agreement that would be as good as if he won militarily, ”Trump said in the interview. “But the moment is happening now. The moment is coming. Something will happen in one way or another. “
“I hope you are going to negotiate because, it will be much better for Iran and I think they want to receive that letter,” he added. “The other alternative is that we have to do something because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump did not offer details of what, if something, was specifically offered to Iran in the letter.
The measure recalled the writing of Trump's letters to the North Korean leader Kim Jong one in his first mandate, which led to face to face meetings, but there are no offers to limit the atomic bombs of Pyongyang and a missile program capable of reaching the continental United States
Iran Long has maintained that his program is for peaceful purposes, even when his officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb, since tensions are high with the United States on their sanctions and with Israel as a high trembling fire remains in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The intelligence agencies of the United States evaluate that Iran has not yet started a weapons program, but has “carried out activities that position it better to produce a nuclear device, if you fail to do it.”
Since Trump returned to the White House, his administration has constantly said that Iran must be able to acquire nuclear weapons. However, a report last month for the United Nations Nuclear Control Agency said Iran has accelerated its uranium production close to weapons.
Trump's first mandate in office was marked by a particularly problematic period in relations with Tehran. In 2018, he unilaterally withdrew the United States from the Iran Nuclear Agreement with the world powers, which leads to sanctions that coincide the economy of Iran. Iran retaliates with attacks at sea, including one that probably carried out and temporarily reduced the oil production of Saudi Arabia.
Trump also ordered the attack that killed Iran General in an unmanned aircraft strike in January 2020.
Iran enriched uranium arsenal increases
According to the original nuclear agreement of 2015, Iran was allowed to enrich uranium only to 3.67% purity and maintain a 300 -kilogram uranium reserve (661 pounds). The last report of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's program put its reservation at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 pounds), since it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.
The accelerated production of Iran of Uranium close to weapons exerts more pressure on Trump, since it has repeatedly said that it is open to negotiations with the Islamic Republic, while increasingly points to Iran's oil sales with the sanctions as part of its “maximum pressure” policy replaced.
Khamenei in a speech last August opened the door to conversations with the United States, saying that “there is no damage” when getting involved with the “enemy.” That occurred after the elected reformist president of Iran Masoud Peseshkian in June, who campaigned in promises of a dissemination to the west.
However, more recently, the supreme leader Templar that, saying that negotiations with the United States “are not intelligent, wise or honorable”, after Trump floated the nuclear conversations with Tehran. Fishshkian has followed his example, committing to fulfill Khamenei's orders.
If Khamenei would accept a letter remains in question. A previous attempt in 2019 that Trump exchange a letter to Khamenei through the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saw the supreme leader declare: “I do not consider that Trump is personally worthy of exchanging any message, nor do I have any response to him, and I will never do it.”
But it is also not clear how they will handle greater pressure. The currency of the Islamic Republic, the Rial, has fallen dramatically in value. Unemployment and underemployment remain unbridled. Meanwhile, women have continued their challenge to laws in the mandatory head scarf, or Hijab, and continue without the coverage of the head, two years after the death of a young woman detained, Mahsa Amini, caused protests nationwide.
Israel and Iran have also exchanged direct attacks during the Israel-Ahamas War, while the partners in the “Self-Disquiscript of Tehran axis are staggering after the murders of their leaders by Israel. In Israel himself, officials have suggested hitting Iran's nuclear program, something that Trump has threatened while insisting that he would prefer to reach a diplomatic agreement with Tehran.
Later, on Friday, Iran's permanent mission against the United Nations in New York said he had not received any Trump letter, the Irna news agency reported.
–Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press Amir Vahdat writer in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.