Iran’s supreme leader rails against Trump’s ‘bullying’ military threat

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has criticised what he described as bullying tactics a day after Donald Trump threatened military action against Iran.

“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 after Trump threatened military action if Iran refused to engage in talks over its nuclear programme.

“Their negotiations are not aimed at solving problems, they aim at domination,” Khamenei said on Saturday.

On Friday, Trump said he had written to Iran’s supreme leader, urging new talks on the country’s nuclear programme or face possible military action if it refuses.

Khamenei said on Saturday that bullying powers aim to assert their own expectations.

“They are setting new expectations that they think will definitely not be met by Iran,” he said, without naming the United States or referring to Trump’s letter.

Iran said it had not yet received a letter from Trump. “We have heard of it [the letter] but we haven’t received anything,” the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said on state television.

On Friday, Araghchi told AFP in an interview that Tehran would not negotiate under “maximum pressure”, although he did not directly address Trump’s letter.

Trump reinstated his first-term policy of maximum pressure on Iran upon returning to the White House in January.

Under this policy, in 2018 the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear accord formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The JCPOA, set between Tehran and western powers in 2015, had offered relief from economic sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran’s nuclear activities.

Tehran has in recent months engaged in diplomatic efforts with three European countries, Britain, France and Germany, aimed at resolving issues surrounding its nuclear ambitions.

However, on Saturday, Khamenei also rebuked the three European countries for “declaring that Iran has not fulfilled its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA”.

“You say that Iran has not fulfilled its commitments under the JCPOA. OK, have you fulfilled your commitments under the JCPOA?” he responded.

Khamenei said Tehran had kept its commitments for a year but there was “no other way” but to roll back from them in accordance with legislation passed by the country’s parliament.

US officials now estimate that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon within weeks if it so chose.

Tehran has consistently denied pursuing nuclear weapons, emphasising the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme.

Officials have always cited a religious decree issued by Khamenei that prohibits the development of such weapons.

Last month, Khamenei reiterated his opposition to negotiations with the US, calling this “unwise” just days after Trump called for a new nuclear deal.

Khamenei accused Washington of having “ruined, violated, and torn up” the 2015 agreement.

In 2019, more than a year after Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, Japan’s then premier, Shinzo Abe, visited Iran in an attempt to mediate between Tehran and Washington.

But Khamenei firmly rejected the possibility of talks with the US, saying he did not “consider Trump as a person worthy of exchanging messages with”.