Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has slammed US President Donald Trump for “bullying” military actions against Tehran.
“Some bully governments - I really don’t know of any more appropriate term for some foreign figures and leaders than the word bullying - insist on negotiations,” Khamenei told officials on Saturday. He was responding to Trump’s earlier statement that Iran might face military action if it refuses to engage in negotiations over its nuclear programme.
“Their negotiations are not aimed at solving problems, they aim at domination,” 85-year-old Khamenei said. He added that “they are setting new expectations that they think will definitely not be met by Iran,” without directly referring to the US or Donald Trump.
On Friday, Trump told local media that he had written a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, urging him to engage in talks over the country’s nuclear enrichment programme. “The time is coming up. Something is going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran and I've written them a letter saying, I hope you're going to negotiate, because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing for them,” Trump told Fox Business on Friday. The US president offered no details of the offer he has made to Iran in the letter.
Iran said it had not received a letter from Trump. “We have heard of it [the letter] but we haven’t received anything,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television on Friday.
Iran claims its nuclear progamme is for peaceful purposes, although some Iranian officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb as tensions are high with Washington.
