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By Ellie Cook and Daniel Orton
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that Tehran had rejected direct negotiations with Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump penned a letter to the regime pushing for fresh talks on a nuclear deal.
Why It Matters
Trump said earlier this month he had reached out to Tehran and expressed his hope that its senior officials would negotiate with the U.S. on Iran's nuclear program.
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"If we have to go in militarily," the Republican president said, "it's going to be a terrible thing for them."
Iran says its nuclear development, which had been curbed by now-lapsed restrictions, is peaceful and not intended to make weapons. But Iranian officials have in recent months publicly floated whether Tehran should abandon this track, and analysts say it would not be difficult for Iran to take the final step toward weaponizing its burgeoning nuclear program.
For the U.S. and its key regional ally, Israel, this would be unacceptable.
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What To Know
Pezeshkian on Sunday said Tehran had "rejected" direct negotiations between its government and the Trump administration but stressed that "that the path for indirect negotiations remains open."
Trump said in remarks to NBC News on Sunday that if the regime, led by 85-year-old supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, did not "make a deal" with the White House, "there will be bombing."
"It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before," he said.
Iran's Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian state news agency IRNA on Thursday that Tehran had responded to Trump's missive through intermediary Oman, which "fully laid out" Iran's stance. The state media report did not outline the contents of Iran's reply.
Trump last month unveiled a new raft of sanctions designed to exert "maximum pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran," cut Tehran off from access to a nuclear weapon and to curtail "Iran's malign influence abroad."
The president told reporters on Friday that "very bad things" will happen to Iran, should Tehran refuse to "talk it out" with Washington. National security adviser Mike Waltz said earlier this month that "all options are on the table" to prevent Iran becoming a nuclear state.
Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy who has been heavily involved in ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel as well as those to stop the Ukraine war, has advocated for diplomatic, rather than military, solutions.
During his first term, Trump pulled the U.S. out of a 2015 agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or simply as the Iran nuclear deal. The agreement relaxed sanctions leveled against Iran in exchange for new limits on Tehran's nuclear program, as officials involved at the time tried to limit weapons sales to and from Iran, as well as the country's ballistic missile development. Iran then abandoned provisions of the JCPOA.
In late February, reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, said Tehran upped its almost weapons-grade uranium production, increasing its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent by nearly 93 kilograms, according to The Associated Press.
Lower percentages of enriched uranium, up to the 3.67 percent allowed under the JCPOA, are used for nuclear power. Percentages between around 20 and the high 90s, however, can be used to make nuclear weapons.
The higher the percentage, the more efficient a nuclear weapon would be. Uranium enriched to 60 percent could theoretically be used for a nuclear weapon, albeit an inefficient one by most standards.
Iran has enough highly enriched uranium to make several relatively low-yield nuclear bombs, according to expert estimates.
What People Are Saying
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the IAEA, said in December that Iran has a "nuclear program that has grown, has spawned in every possible direction," adding: "The Iran of 2015 has nothing to do with Iran of 2025."
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Iranian state broadcaster PressTV shortly after Trump sent his letter to Tehran that the missive was deceptive.
Update 3/30/25 8:36 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Update 3/30/25 11:57 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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