Above photo: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses a ceremony marking “National Martyr Day” in Tehran, March 12, 2025. IRNA.
Iranian leadership has made it clear that US can not be taken seriously.
Trump instead of withdrawing existing unilateral sanctions, is busy making threats of “maximum pressure campaign”.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday, March 12 that the US offer to talk with Iran is not credible. He claimed since the Trump administration is neither ready to address Iranian concerns nor willing to lift its illegal unilateral sanctions to prove its seriousness, Iran believes the offer of talk is an attempt to deceive world public opinion and present Iran in a bad light.
He was responding to President Donald Trump’s claims during an interview with Fox Business on March 7 about writing a letter to Iran’s supreme leader offering talks over the nuclear issue.
Despite offers of talks, the Trump administration also relaunched its “maximum pressure campaign” against Iran immediately after assuming office in January and imposed fresh sanctions with a promise to bring Iranian oil and gas exports to zero.
The maximum pressure campaign against Iran was first launched during Trump’s first presidential term in May 2018 after the US unilaterally withdrew from a multi-party Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran nuclear deal.
Addressing university students during an annual event in Tehran, Khamenei denied he has received any letter from Trump.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi later on Wednesday confirmed that he has received the said letter which was handed down to him by an Emirati official traveling to Tehran on the same day.
Khamenei reminded his audience that Iran negotiated for years to achieve JCPOA but Trump unilaterally destroyed that agreement in 2018. He said Iran knows that Trump will never respect the outcome of any talks and therefore all such exercises are not only futile but even harmful for Iran as such negotiations could increase pressure on the country.
Negotiations will raise new expectations and new excessive demands without resolving any existing problems and creating new ones, Khamenei surmised during the March 12 gathering with students.
He also rejected claims that American pressure in any way was responsible for Iran not having a nuclear bomb. If Iran wants to have a nuclear weapon no force can stop it from having one. However, not having a nuclear weapon is Iran’s conscious choice, Khamenei said.
While declaring that Iran is very much capable of responding to any war imposed on it, Khamenei reiterated Iran’s position that “war is not good. Iran does not seek war. But if someone takes action, we will definitely give a decisive response.”
Iran Does Not Negotiate Under Threats
Khamenei’s stand on the futility of talks with the Trump administration has been reiterated by several other Iran officials recently.
On Thursday, Araghchi claimed Iran will achieve nothing if it enters in talks with the US under its so-called maximum pressure campaign. “The ineffectiveness of the policy of pressure must be proven to the US before Islamic Republic can sit at the negotiating table on equal terms,” he said, adding that Iran’s strategy to counter the “maximum pressure” policy is “maximum resistance,” Press TV reported.
Araghchi emphasized that the US must withdraw all sanctions as Iran will only “enter direct negotiations when we are on equal footing, free from pressure and threats and confident that the people’s national interests will be secured.”
On March 11, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said that Iran wants “to maintain relationships with the world. We don’t want to be estranged or quarrel with anyone, but that does not mean we will bow in humiliation before anyone.” He was speaking in a meeting of Iranian entrepreneurs in the capital Tehran.
Trump has repeatedly used belligerent language against Iran, even threatening complete annihilation. Apart from withdrawing from JCPOA and imposing sanctions, during his first term, Trump had also ordered the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Corp (IRGC) commander on January 3, 2020 when he was travelling to Baghdad.
Trump has expressed his administration’s wish to broaden the scope of JCPOA and include Iran’s missile and regional policies in its ambit, in a similar move to Joe Biden.
Iran has claimed that the US is pursuing Israeli foreign policy objectives in the region and that in the name of renegotiating JCPOA, it seeks to obliterate all possible challenges to their combined hegemony in the region. It has denied any possibility of Iran abandoning its missile and regional policies.