Iran said a delegation led by a senior Emirati figure has delivered a letter from US President Donald Trump to the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei told the semiofficial ISNA news agency on March 12 that Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, had delivered the letter.
Trump said last week that he had written to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proposing talks to reach a deal over Tehran’s expanding nuclear program.
"We cannot let them have a nuclear weapon," he said, adding that "something is going to happen very soon."
"Hopefully we will have a peace deal," he said, apparently meaning a peaceful resolution of tension over Tehran's nuclear program. "I’m just saying I’d rather see a peace deal than the other. But the other will solve the problem.”
Khamenei has opposed talks direct talks with the Trump administration and said after the president’s announcement last week that Tehran would not negotiate with “bullying governments.”
"Such negotiations aren’t aimed at solving issues. Their aim is to exert their dominance and impose what they want," Khamenei said during a Ramadan speech on March 8.
Without explicitly naming the US, he said “bullying governments” are not only focused on Iran’s nuclear program but also “make new demands” targeting the Islamic republic's defensive capabilities and regional activities.
“Negotiations are a means to impose new demands. Iran will definitely not fulfill these new demands,” Khamenei said.
The Iranian leader has accused Trump of being untrustworthy after US president withdrew the US from a landmark nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions that had been lifted under its terms.
After abrogating the accord in 2018, Trump welcomed an offer by Japan's then-prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to mediate and in 2019 asked the Japanese premier to deliver a letter to Khamenei. The Iranian leader rejected the letter, saying it was "not worthy" of a response.
Russia, which is one of the signatories to the original nuclear deal, has expressed an interest in mediating talks between Tehran and Washington, though many have questioned whether Moscow can be an impartial broker.
Referencing Moscow’s talks with Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on March 12 said the Iranian nuclear program has been discussed and that Trump has made Tehran ending its support for its proxies a “precondition for a new nuclear deal.”
Meanwhile, China has announced that it will host a trilateral meeting with Iran and Russia on March 14 to “exchange views on the Iranian nuclear issue,” among other topics.