Khamenei rejects negotiations with 'bullying governments'

The Islamic Republic will not engage in negotiations with "bullying" powers, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Saturday, a day after US President Donald Trump sent him a letter requesting nuclear talks.

Khamenei's official website quoted him as saying, "The insistence of some bullying governments on negotiations is not aimed at resolving issues but rather at asserting dominance and imposing their own demands. The Islamic Republic of Iran will certainly not accept their expectations."

President Trump revealed on Friday that he had sent a letter to Khamenei, offering negotiations while warning of military consequences if talks failed. Speaking to Fox Business Network, Trump said, “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily or through a deal. I would prefer to make a deal.”

Many in Iran anticipated Khamenei’s response to President Donald Trump’s letter during his speech at a meeting with top government officials on Saturday afternoon. Although the full text of his speech has not yet been released, but apparently he did not directly address Trump's letter.

Khamenei routinely meets with senior government officials, including the president, every Ramadan. This time, however, the announcement came unusually late on Friday evening Tehran time. This followed Trump’s revelation that he had sent Khamenei a letter offering negotiations on Iran's nuclear program while warning that military intervention was the alternative.

Iran has not officially acknowledged receiving Trump’s letter. On Friday, Tehran’s UN mission in New York stated that Iran had “so far” not received any such correspondence.

Speculation over Russian mediation

Highlighting the mediatory role that Russia is playing between Iran and the US, some Iranian media and pundits have speculated that the letter may have been handed to the Iranian ambassador Kazem Jalali during his meeting with the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov around midday Tehran time on Friday. Tehran and Moscow both said the meeting was to discuss international efforts to resolve Iran's nuclear program and Tehran-Moscow cooperation.

Hardline media predict no response

Trump sent another letter to Khamenei in 2019, after unilaterally withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal. Khamenei refused to accept the letter, delivered by then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and insisted that Trump was untrustworthy.

An editorial in the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked Javan newspaper on Saturday dismissed Trump’s latest letter as “a segment of America’s propaganda puzzle”. Referring to Khamenei’s refusal to accept Trump’s 2019 letter, the editorial suggested that Iran would once again ignore Trump’s message. “Based on the Islamic Republic’s polices; one can predict Iran's response to the letter. There will be no reply, assuming the letter is allowed to be delivered,” the article stated.

The ultra-hardliner Kayhan newspaper similarly referenced the 2019 incident and Khamenei’s rejection of the idea of negotiations with the United States in a speech in February. In its editorial on Saturday, Kayhan argued that Trump’s primary goals was to improve his own image and shift blame for lack of diplomacy onto Iran.

Backchannel diplomacy

Iran and the United States typically communicate through backchannels or intermediaries, such as Oman, which has on several occasions facilitated meetings between officials of the two countries or relayed messages.

Former President Barack Obama reportedly sent multiple letters to Khamenei between 2009 and 2015, discussing topics such as diplomacy, the nuclear deal (JCPOA), and potential cooperation against ISIS. However, there are no reports that Khamenei ever responded in writing to any of these letters.