Luke Garrett – NPR.org March 9, 2025
President Trump said he sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week asking that the two leaders “negotiate” over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program. On Saturday, the Iranian leader condemned the effort by unnamed “bullying governments” to make a deal over the program.
Trump said the alternative to talks is force during an interview with Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
“There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal,” Trump said. “I would prefer to make a deal, because I’m not looking to hurt Iran. They’re great people. I know so many Iranians from this country.”
The president went on to criticize Iran’s leadership, but said he’s written Iran’s supreme leader personally asking to talk. Khamenei rebuffed the outreach Saturday during a meeting with government and military officials.
“The insistence of some bullying governments to negotiate is not to solve problems, but to impose their own expectations,” Khamenei said, according to state media. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely not accept their expectations.”
Iran’s nuclear program has been the subject of Western scrutiny for nearly two decades. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for energy use only, but the U.S. and its allies say Iran’s program is a front for a nuclear weapons bomb.
On Sunday, Iran seemed to open the door to limited negotiations. Its UN mission posted on X that Iran would discuss the “militarization” of its nuclear program, but the “dismantlement” of its program is a non-starter.
“Should the aim be the dismantlement of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program to claim that what Obama failed to achieve has now been accomplished, such negotiations will never take place,” Iran’s UN Mission said.
While Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes, its officials have recently threatened to create a bomb in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a recent House resolution by Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla. And weapons-grade uranium production has increased, according to the Associated Press.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News the deal he wants to reach with Iran.
“Here’s what a good deal looks like to me,” Graham, an influential foreign policy voice in the Senate, said. “No more enrichment for Iran. Take all the highly enriched uranium out of Iran — I’m willing to buy it from them and allow them to have nuclear power where fuel rods are provided by Russia or China or some international group.”
In short, Graham said he wants to eliminate Iran’s “nuclear capability to make a bomb.”
Trump summarized his message to Iran’s leader.
“I said, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,'” Trump recounted to Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “And I think they want to get that letter. The other alternative is, we have to do something, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump has moved away from ukraine but for some reason Starmer
is stepping into it Russia must be laughing
Starmer is robbing the elderly the sick and the farmers
he cant even pay the massive cost of the migrants
but to rob our own people to give to zelenski makes him as big a criminal as tony blair
did you know farage said he wont stop the migrants ?
All to make Israel Great and to hell with his own nation. Trump will squander it all and and is now very quickly fracturing his own MAGA base, and turning out to be the unwitting tool not just of the Zionists but also for a resurgence of the globalist cause in the next election.
My question is, if Iran is an independent nation like America, France and England for example, then why can America France and England develop nuclear weapons and tell Iran NO? What makes those countries so trust worthy? Given what we know of them, it doesn’t give me a warm feeling knowing they’re in charge of who can and can’t do this or that. And by what authority do they claim the right to dictate to another sovereign nation it’s domestic policy. Are we to expect another Gaddafi incident. Are yes, let’s trust known murderers to hold nuclear weapons. That sound like a sound idea.
The near constant stream of new Iranian war machines continue to prove new-clear weapons undesirable for many reasons. Foremost, it continues to prove Iran does well without them.
This man drumpt is such a bully, speaks likes a gangster. Iran has the same right to have nuclear bombs as israehell, who stolen all the nuclear technology from the USA and still does not acknowledge that it has nuclear bombs. Yes, Iran has to have the right weapons to defend itself if need be from the talmud evil cult that keeps on threatening Iran. Iran is a peaceful country unlike the USA and the occupiers of israehell.
If the King of the Universe Mr Thrump is foolish enough to use force on Iran, he might not come up trumps!!!😒🤢