‘Not intelligent, wise or honourable’: Iran’s Khamenei refuses Trump’s nuclear talks offer

In response to US President Donal Trump saying that he wants a deal with Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has said that talks are neither wise nor honourable at the moment.

Earlier this week, Trump said that he wants to reach a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran. He said this a day after imposing 'maximum pressure' sanctions on Iran and saying he has left instructions to 'obliterate' Iran if he is killed — Iran has been charged with plot to assassinate him.

In remarks on Friday, Khamenei said that experience has proven that talks with the United States are “are not intelligent, wise, or honourable”, according to Associated Press.

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While Khamenei said that “there should be no negotiations with such a government”, he stopped short of issuing a direct order not to engage in negotiations with the United States — potentially leaving the door open for talks. Khamenei’s remarks came a day after Reuters quoted a senior Iranian official as saying that Iran was ready to give the United States a chance to resolve disputes.

Khamenei slams Trump’s withdrawal from 2015 nuclear deal

In his remarks, Khamenei slammed the US withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran signed P5+1 countries comprising the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China, and Germany.

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The deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, capped Iran’s nuclear programmes and ruled out the development of nuclear weapons in exchange of lifting of economic and trade sanctions. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the deal as being unfair as certain clauses of the deal were not permanent and were bound to expire at certain point.

In his first term (2017-21), Trump had exited the Iran nuclear deal that the previous Barack Obama administration had signed. The following year, Iran also quit the agreement and ramped up the enrichment of nuclear fuel uranium.

Khamenei suggested Iran knows by experience that the United States cannot be trusted.

“The Americans did not uphold their end of the deal. The very person who is in office today tore up the agreement. He said he would, and he did. This is an experience we must learn from. We negotiated, we gave concessions, we compromised but we did not achieve the results we aimed for. And despite all its flaws, the other side ultimately violated and destroyed the agreement,” said Khamenei, according to AP.

After exiting the Iran nuclear deal, Trump mounted stringent sanctions on Iran under a strategy that he dubbed ‘maximum pressure’. While he had hoped the strategy would bring Iran to the negotiating table and force it into making a deal favourable to the United States and Israel, the approach backfired. To the contrary of Trump’s expectations, Iran ramped up the nuclear programme and currently sits at the threshold of developing a nuclear weapon.

After enriching plenty of nuclear fuel uranium to near weapons-grade level, Iran is at a position where it can develop a proper nuclear weapon within 12-18 months and a 'crude' weapon within a few months, according to US intelligence assessment.