Dubai, March 8, 2025: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ruled out negotiations with the United States under what he described as “bully pressure,” responding to US President Donald Trump’s recent outreach for nuclear talks.
Speaking at a meeting with senior Iranian officials, Khamenei dismissed Washington’s call for negotiations, asserting that the US was seeking to impose its own demands rather than resolving issues. “The insistence of some bully governments on negotiations is not to resolve issues, but to dominate and impose their own expectations,” he stated, as reported by Iranian state media.
His comments came a day after Trump revealed in an interview with Fox Business that he had sent a letter to Iran’s leadership offering talks, stating that Tehran could be dealt with either “militarily” or through a new agreement to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
While Trump has expressed openness to striking a deal, his administration has reinstated a “maximum pressure” campaign aimed at crippling Iran’s economy and cutting off its oil exports—similar to the strategy he employed during his first term in office.
During his presidency from 2017 to 2021, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, which had imposed strict limits on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. Following the US exit in 2018 and the reimposition of sanctions, Tehran breached and significantly exceeded those restrictions.
Meanwhile, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi has warned that time is running out for diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program, as the country continues to enrich uranium close to weapons-grade levels. However, Tehran maintains that its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes.
