U.S. President Donald Trump sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, seeking a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear program and replace the one he withdrew America from in his first term in office.
“I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network broadcast on Friday.
“I think they want to get that letter. The other alternative is we have to do something, because you can’t let another nuclear weapon.”
The White House confirmed Trump’s comments, saying that he sent a letter to Iran’s leaders seeking to negotiate a nuclear deal.
“I would rather negotiate a deal. I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily,” Trump added. “But the time is happening now. The time is coming up. Something’s going to happen one way or the other.”
“The other alternative is we have to do something because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump’s acknowledgment comes 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 — a purity only sought by atomic-armed nations.
However, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on Friday that no letter had been received from US President Donald Trump pressing for talks on preventing the development of nuclear weapons.
“We have not received such a letter so far,” said a spokesman for Iran’s embassy to the UN after Tehran’s foreign minister told AFP Friday that the country would not negotiate so long as the United States applies “maximum pressure.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.firstpost.com/world/us-donald-trump-writes-to-irans-supreme-leader-khamenei-seeks-new-nuclear-deal-13869667.html.
