Trump tells Khamenei to make a nuclear deal or face military intervention

US President Donald Trump has sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei offering talks toward a deal on its nuclear program, he told Fox Business Network, but warned that the alternative was a military intervention.

"I hope that Iran, and I've written them a letter saying, I hope you're going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing for them," Trump said in a segment of the interview broadcast on Friday.

"There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal because I'm not looking to hurt Iran," Trump added. "They're great people. I know so many Iranians from this country."

The letter was swiftly dismissed by an official outlet of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, a military force which along with Khamenei is a key decision-maker, as a pointless psychological operation.

Trump made a similar approach in his first term, sending a letter with Japan's prime minister at the time Shinzo Abe. The 2019 letter was disregarded by Khamenei who said it was 'not worthy' of a reply.

Tehran's UN mission in New York said no letter from Trump has been received.

Again saying Iran would not negotiate under the strengthened sanctions Trump imposed last month, foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that Israel was trying to embroil the United States and the region in a foolish war.

"It is Israel's desire to involve the other countries in the region in a war. It is Israel's desire to draw America into a war," he said in an interview with AFP.

This is precisely an Israeli plan to drag America into war, and America is extremely vulnerable if it enters a war in the region. They themselves know this."

'One way or the other'

Trump added in his interview that a nuclear deal would be a victory for Iran.

"I think they want to get that letter," he said. "The other alternative is we have to do something, because you can't let another nuclear weapon."

"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," US president added. "Something's going to happen one way or the other."

The letter comes after the Trump administration broke with decades of US policy to negotiate directly in recent weeks with the Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas movement it views as a terrorist organization.

Trump’s remarks come as his administration ramps up pressure on Tehran through renewed economic sanctions and enforcement measures targeting Iran’s oil exports.

On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined the administration’s updated "maximum pressure" campaign, saying that the goal is to push Iran’s economy to the brink by tightening restrictions on its oil trade.

"Making Iran broke again will mark the beginning of our updated sanctions policy," Bessent told the Economic Club of New York, highlighting the impact of US sanctions on the Iranian rial, which has lost half its value in the past six months.

Meanwhile, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, addressing parliament on Sunday, acknowledged increasing economic pressure, saying that Iranian tankers now face growing uncertainty in unloading their cargoes due to heightened US enforcement.