{"id":131857,"date":"2025-03-30T18:25:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T18:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-has-rejected-direct-negotiations-with-the-us-in-response-to-trumps-letter-the-associated-press\/"},"modified":"2025-03-30T18:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T18:25:28","slug":"iran-has-rejected-direct-negotiations-with-the-us-in-response-to-trumps-letter-the-associated-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/iran-has-rejected-direct-negotiations-with-the-us-in-response-to-trumps-letter-the-associated-press\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to Trump\u2019s letter – The Associated Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Iran\u2019s president says his country has officially informed the U.S that it rejects direct negotiations. President Masould Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Iran\u2019s response to US President Donald Trump\u2019s letter had been delivered to a U.S contact in Oman.
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a rally in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, file)
This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)
Iran\u2019s president says his country has officially informed the U.S that it rejects direct negotiations. President Masould Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Iran\u2019s response to US President Donald Trump\u2019s letter had been delivered to a U.S contact in Oman.
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a rally in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, file)
In this photo released by the Iranian Presidency Office, President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a rally in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP, file)
This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)
This is a locator map for Iran with its capital, Tehran. (AP Photo)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran\u2019s first response to a letter that U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a><\/span> sent to the country\u2019s supreme leader<\/a><\/span>.
President Masoud Pezeshkian<\/a><\/span> said that Iran\u2019s response, delivered via the sultanate of Oman, left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington. However, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran\u2019s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
In the years since, regional tensions have boiled over into attacks at sea<\/a><\/span> and on land<\/a><\/span>. Then came the Israel-Hamas war<\/a><\/span> in the Gaza Strip, which saw Israel target militant group leaders across Iran\u2019s self-described \u201cAxis of Resistance.\u201d Now, as the U.S. conducts intense airstrikes<\/a><\/span> targeting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen, the risk of military action targeting Iran\u2019s nuclear program remains on the table.
\u201cWe don\u2019t avoid talks; it\u2019s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,\u201d Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. \u201cThey must prove that they can build trust.\u201d
The U.S. State Department, responding to Pezeshkian, said that \u201cPresident Trump has been clear: the United States cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president expressed his willingness to discuss a deal with Iran,\u201d it added. \u201cIf the Iranian regime does not want a deal, the president is clear, he will pursue other options, which will be very bad for Iran.\u201d
Trump said before Pezeshkian\u2019s comments that he was considering military action and secondary tariffs, if Iran doesn\u2019t agree to a nuclear deal.
\u201cIf they don\u2019t make a deal, there will be bombing and it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before,\u201d Trump said in a comment aired Sunday by NBC News.
Having Pezeshkian announce the decision shows just how much has changed in Iran, since his election a half-year ago after he campaigned on a promise to reengage with the West.
Since Trump\u2019s election and the resumption of his \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d campaign on Tehran, Iran\u2019s rial currency has gone into a freefall. Pezeshkian had left open discussions up until Iran\u2019s 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei came down hard on Trump in February and warned talks \u201care not intelligent, wise or honorable\u201d<\/a><\/span> with his administration. The Iranian president then immediately toughened his own remarks on the U.S.
Meanwhile, there have been mixed messages coming from Iran for weeks. Videos from Quds, or Jerusalem, Day demonstrations on Friday had people in the crowds instructing participants to only shout: \u201cDeath to Israel!\u201d Typically, \u201cDeath to America\u201d was also heard.
A video of an underground missile base unveiled by Iran\u2019s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard also showed its troops stepping on an Israeli flag painted on the ground \u2014 though there was no American flag as often seen in such propaganda videos.
But Press TV, the English-language arm of Iranian state television, published an article last week that included listing U.S. bases in the Middle East as possible targets of attack. The list included Camp Thunder Cove on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, where the U.S. is basing stealth B-2 bombers<\/a><\/span> likely being used in Yemen.
\u201cThe Americans themselves know how vulnerable they are,\u201d warned Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Friday. \u201cIf they violate Iran\u2019s sovereignty, it will be like a spark in a gunpowder depot, setting the entire region ablaze. In such a scenario, their bases and their allies will not be safe.\u201d
However, Tehran\u2019s two recent direct attacks on Israel<\/a><\/span> with ballistic missiles and drones caused negligible damage, while Israel responded<\/a><\/span> by destroying Iranian air defense systems.
Trump\u2019s letter arrived in Tehran on March 12. Though announcing that he wrote it in a television interview, Trump offered little detail on what he exactly told the supreme leader.
\u201cI\u2019ve written them a letter saying, \u2018I hope you\u2019re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it\u2019s going to be a terrible thing,\u2019\u201d Trump said in the interview.
The move recalled Trump\u2019s letter-writing to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in his first term, which led to face-to-face meetings, but no deals to limit Pyongyang\u2019s atomic bombs<\/a><\/span> and a missile program capable of reaching the continental U.S.
The last time that Trump tried to send a letter to Khamenei, through the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2019, the supreme leader mocked the effort.
Trump\u2019s letter came as both Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near weapons-grade levels of 60% purity \u2014 something only done by atomic-armed nations.
Iran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb. A report in February, however, by the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.\u2019s nuclear watchdog<\/a><\/span>, said that Iran has accelerated its production of near weapons-grade uranium.
Iran\u2019s reluctance to deal with Trump likely also takes root in his ordering the attack that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani<\/a><\/span> in a Baghdad drone strike in January 2020. The U.S. has said Iran plotted to assassinate Trump<\/a><\/span> over that prior to his election this November, something Tehran denied though officials have threatened him.
Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.Iran\u2019s president says his country has officially informed the U.S that it rejects direct negotiations. President Masould Pezeshkian told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that Iran\u2019s response to US President Donald Trump\u2019s letter had been delivered to a U.S contact in Oman.In this photo released by the Iranian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}