President Donald Trump said Friday that he is seeking a new agreement with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear program, warning ominously of a conflict if a deal can’t be reached.
The president earlier told Fox News that he sent a letter to Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, calling for an agreement to replace the one that the Trump administration canceled in May 2018 in favor of what they called a “maximum pressure” campaign.
He suggested, without specifics, that the issue could quickly lead to conflict with Iran, which has accelerated its production of weapons-grade uranium since 2018.
“We’re at final moments.” Trump said. “We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
The White House did not release the letter and the president did not make it clear whether he was suggesting direct U.S. action was an option in dealing with the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran — an issue that has challenged multiple administrations.
“There’ll be some interesting days ahead, that’s all I can tell you. We’re down to final strokes with Iran,” he said.
Later, Trump added that he was interested in peace with Iran.
“Hopefully we can have a peace deal,” he said. “I’m not speaking out of strength or weakness, I’m just saying I’d rather have a peace deal than the other, but the other will solve the problem.”
He discussed the letter, the first engagement of his new administration with the Iranian leadership, earlier in the day in an interview on Fox News.
Iran immediately was dismissive of the new approach. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country would not resume talks until the U.S. rolls back its “maximum pressure” sanctions policy.
In Trump’s first term, his administration withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear deal between Iran and several nations, in which the Iranian government agreed to limit its civilian nuclear enrichment program in return for sanctions relief. Last month, the president signed a memorandum restoring the pressure campaign.
Meanwhile, Iran has accelerated enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi has warned that Iran is dangerously close to nuclear armament, saying the country already has enough uranium enriched to a near weapons-grade level to fuel several nuclear weapons.
This week’s public interaction also comes at a particularly tense time between the two governments, as U.S. prosecutors alleged last fall that the Iranian regime ordered an operative to assassinate Trump in the leadup to the 2024 election, which Iran has repeatedly denied.