A letter President Trump wrote to Iran’s supreme chief in an try and jump-start talks over Tehran’s quickly advancing nuclear program has arrived within the Iranian capital.
Whereas the textual content of the letter hasn’t been revealed, its arrival comes as Trump levied new sanctions on Iran as a part of his “most stress” marketing campaign concentrating on the nation. He additionally instructed navy motion in opposition to Iran remained a chance, whereas emphasizing he nonetheless believed a brand new deal might be reached.
Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has mocked Trump, however officers in his nation even have provided conflicting indicators over whether or not negotiations might happen.
Right here’s what to know concerning the letter, Iran’s nuclear program and the general tensions which have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Why did Trump write the letter?
Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, then gave a tv interview the following day through which he acknowledged sending it. He stated: “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to barter as a result of if we’ve to go in militarily, it’s going to be a horrible factor.’” Since returning to the White Home, the president has been pushing for talks whereas concurrently ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a navy strike by Israel or the U.S. might goal Iranian nuclear websites.
A earlier letter from Trump throughout his first time period drew an indignant retort from the supreme chief.
However Trump’s letters to North Korean chief Kim Jong Un in his first time period led to face-to-face conferences, although no offers to restrict Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile program able to reaching the continental U.S.
How has Iran reacted?
Iran has provided a collection of seemingly contradictory responses. Khamenei himself stated he wasn’t all in favour of talks with a “bullying authorities.”
However Iranian diplomats together with Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier instructed that talks over ensures that Tehran wouldn’t search a nuclear weapon might be attainable. Araghchi, who took half in negotiations for Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, later toughened his tone and stated talks couldn’t occur underneath U.S. stress, following Khamenei’s lead.
Nevertheless, Araghchi nonetheless met with the Emirati diplomat carrying Trump’s letter.
In the meantime, Iran’s Overseas Ministry on Thursday summoned ambassadors from France and Germany, in addition to the British chargé d’affaires, to complain about them backing a closed-door Safety Council assembly Wednesday on the United Nations.
Why does Iran’s nuclear program fear the West?
Iran has insisted for many years that its nuclear program is peaceable. Nevertheless, its officers more and more threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to close weapons-grade ranges of 60%, the one nation on the planet with no nuclear weapons program to take action.
Beneath the unique 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to counterpoint uranium solely as much as 3.67% purity and to keep up a uranium stockpile of 661 kilos. The final report by the Worldwide Atomic Power Company on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 18,286 kilos because it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.
U.S. intelligence businesses assess that Iran has but to start a weapons program, however has “undertaken actions that higher place it to supply a nuclear machine, if it chooses to take action.”
Why are relations so unhealthy between Iran and the U.S.?
Iran was as soon as one of many U.S.’ high allies within the Mideast underneath Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who bought American navy weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah’s rule.
However in January 1979, the shah, fatally ailing with most cancers, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled in opposition to his rule. The Islamic Revolution adopted, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran’s theocratic authorities.
Later that yr, college college students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, searching for the shah’s extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage disaster that noticed diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed. The Iran-Iraq struggle of the Eighties noticed the U.S. again Saddam Hussein. The “Tanker Warfare” throughout that battle noticed the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, whereas the U.S. later shot down an Iranian business airliner.
Iran and the U.S. have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy within the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made a 2015 nuclear cope with world powers. However Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, sparking years of tensions within the Mideast that persist at present.
Gambrell writes for the Related Press. AP author Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed.
