DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has responded to a letter despatched by U.S. President Donald Trump to its supreme chief in an try and jump-start talks over Tehran’s quickly advancing nuclear program, rejecting the choice of direct talks.
The choice by Tehran leaves open the potential of oblique talks with Washington. Nonetheless, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first time period unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Tehran’s nuclear take care of world powers in 2018.
Trump has threatened new sanctions on Iran as a part of his “maximum pressure” marketing campaign concentrating on the nation. He has once more advised army motion towards Iran remained a chance, whereas emphasizing he nonetheless believed a brand new deal could possibly be reached.
Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday warned Iran would reply to any assault with an assault of its personal.
Right here’s what to know in regards to the letter, Iran’s nuclear program and the tensions which have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Why did Trump write the letter?
Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, then gave a tv interview the subsequent day by which he acknowledged sending it. He stated: “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing.’”
Since returning to the White Home, the president has been pushing for talks whereas ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a army strike by Israel or the U.S. may goal Iranian nuclear websites.
A earlier letter from Trump throughout his first time period drew an indignant retort from the supreme chief.
However Trump’s letters to North Korean chief Kim Jong Un in his first time period led to face-to-face conferences, although no offers to restrict Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile program able to reaching the continental U.S.
How has Iran reacted?
On Sunday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected direct negotiations with america over Tehran’s nuclear program.
“We don’t avoid talks; it’s the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,” Pezeshkian stated in televised remarks throughout a Cupboard assembly. “They must prove that they can build trust.”
On Monday, Khamenei seemingly reacted to feedback by Trump renewing his risk of army motion.
“They threaten to commit acts of mischief, but we are not entirely certain that such actions will take place,” the supreme chief stated. “We do not consider it highly likely that trouble will come from the outside. However, if it does, they will undoubtedly face a strong retaliatory strike.”
Iran’s Overseas Ministry summoned the Swiss chargé d’affaires in Iran on Monday to complain in regards to the “continuous evils” of Israel and Trump’s risk of army motion. Switzerland has appeared out for America’s pursuits in Iran for many years.
Overseas Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei went additional.
“An open threat of ‘bombing’ by a Head of State against Iran is a shocking affront to the very essence of International Peace and Security,” he wrote on the social platform X. “Violence breeds violence, peace begets peace. The US can choose the course…; and concede to CONSEQUENCES.”
Why does Iran’s nuclear program fear the West?
Iran has insisted for many years that its nuclear program is peaceable. Nonetheless, its officers more and more threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to close weapons-grade ranges of 60%, the one nation on the earth with out a nuclear weapons program to take action.
Underneath the unique 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to complement uranium as much as 3.67% purity and to take care of a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 kilos). The final report by the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 kilos) because it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.
U.S. intelligence businesses assess that Iran has but to start a weapons program, however has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”
Why are relations so unhealthy between Iran and the U.S.?
Iran was as soon as one of many U.S.’s prime allies within the Mideast beneath Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who bought American army weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah’s rule.
However in January 1979, the shah, fatally ailing with most cancers, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled towards his rule. The Islamic Revolution adopted, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran’s theocratic authorities.
Later that 12 months, college college students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, in search of the shah’s extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage disaster that noticed diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed. The Iran-Iraq battle of the Nineteen Eighties noticed the U.S. again Saddam Hussein. The “Tanker War” throughout that battle noticed the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, whereas the U.S. later shot down an Iranian business airliner.
Iran and the U.S. have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy within the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made the 2015 nuclear take care of world powers. However Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, sparking tensions within the Mideast that persist in the present day.
