US president Donald Trump said today he sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a bid to resolve US-Iranian tensions through diplomacy.
"There are two ways Iran can be handled — militarily, or you make a deal," Trump said in a televised interview released today. "I would prefer to make a deal, because I'm not looking to hurt Iran."
Trump said he reached out directly to Khamenei, saying "I hope you're going to negotiate because it's going to be a lot better for Iran, and I think they want to get that letter."
Khamenei is the final decision-maker under the Iranian constitution, with authority to direct or overrule Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian's government.
Trump has previously denounced former president Barack Obama's diplomacy with Iran but appears to now be following a similar path.
Obama exchanged correspondence with Khamenei as the two countries hashed out the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement. The JCPOA went into effect in 2016, lifting the US sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran's acceptance of restrictions on its nuclear program.
Trump in 2018 unilaterally withdrew the US from the JCPOA, leading Tehran to resume work on uranium enrichment and other components of its nuclear program that, according to US experts, in theory would allow Iran to manufacture nuclear weapons in a matter of weeks. Tehran denies pursuing nuclear weapons.
The ultimate goal in his diplomacy with Tehran is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Trump said.
"I'm not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily," Trump said.
Tehran did not immediately react to Trump's announcement. Khamenei last month appeared to downplay the possibility of renewed diplomacy with the new US administration, noting Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA.
"Negotiating with a government like the US government is not wise, intelligent or honorable," Khamenei said last month.
Trump last month directed US government agencies to find ways to dial up economic pressure on Tehran.
US sanctions against Iran are already at a maximum, and nothing short of a naval blockade could prevent the flow of Iranian crude to buyers in China through a well-established network of ships, traders and financial intermediaries that have been able to bypass US sanctions.
Iranian crude supply to China rebounded in February as more ports allowed access to sanctioned shipping. China's imports of Iranian crude were on course to hit 1.5mn b/d last month.
But Trump's anti-Iran directive last month is more likely to hit Iraq, which depends on natural gas and electricity imports from its neighbor.
Iraq's electricity ministry has asked the government to raise gasoil imports as a precautionary measure to ensure the country has enough fuel for power generation head of the peak demand summer months.
The US since 2018 has granted periodic sanctions waivers to Iraq to allow Baghdad to import energy from Iran.
The current waiver is set to expire on Saturday, but the State Department says it has not decided whether to renew it yet.
"We are urging the Iraqi government to eliminate its dependence on Iranian sources of energy as soon as possible," the State Department said on Thursday.
