US President Trump said he wanted to negotiate directly with Iran on nuclear issues, after threatening to bomb if the two parties did not reach an agreement.
“I think it would be better if we directly dialogue,” US President Donald Trump told reporters on Air Force Air Force, mentioning negotiations with Iran on nuclear issues. “Everything will happen faster and help understand the other side more than negotiations through intermediaries.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran would not dialogue directly with Washington until the United States “changed the approach” to the Middle Eastern nation, but left the ability to indirectly negotiate as the two sides used to work in the past.
However, President Trump said that Iran no longer wanted to talk to the intermediary.
“I think they are worried and vulnerable. I don’t want them to feel like that,” the White House boss said. “I think they want to meet.”
Iranian officials have not commented on Trump’s new statement.
US President Donald Trump at Miami International Airport on April 3. Image: AFP
The US president wrote a letter to the supreme leader of Iran Ali Khamenei to call for negotiations on Tehran’s nuclear program, and warned of the possibility of military action in case the Middle Eastern country refused. The anonymous sources said Mr. Trump in the letter gave Iran for two months to reach an agreement.
In response, Khamenei affirmed that the US threat would not work and Iran would take retaliation in the case of Washington “doing anything harmful” to the country.
President Trump last week announced that he would “bomb the unprecedented level” and imposed secondary taxes with Iran, if Tehran did not give up the effort to develop atomic weapons.
Foreign Minister Jean-Nel Barrot said on April 2 that the risk of conflict was “almost inevitable” if negotiating on Iran’s nuclear problem failed. The Kremlin on April 4 confirmed that tensions around Tehran’s nuclear program could only be resolved through diplomatic paths and calling for restraint parties.
Western countries, including the United States, have long accused Iran pursuing the ambition to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran rejected and affirmed that they only enriched uranium for peaceful purposes.
Iran and the powers in 2015 signed an agreement called the general comprehensive action plan (JCPOA), in which Tehran agreed to restrict the nuclear program to loosen sanctions.
President Trump withdrew the US from this agreement during his first term and re -imposed embargoing measures to Iran. After returning to the White House in January, he continued to resume the “maximum pressure” policy with Iran to force the country to abandon the nuclear program.