DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A letter U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to Iran’s supreme chief in an try and jump-start talks over Tehran’s quickly advancing nuclear program has arrived within the Iranian capital.
Whereas the textual content of the letter hasn’t been revealed, its arrival comes as Trump has levied new sanctions on Iran as a part of his “most stress” marketing campaign concentrating on the nation. He additionally prompt navy motion towards Iran remained a risk, whereas emphasizing he nonetheless believed a brand new deal may very well be reached.
Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has mocked Trump, however officers in his nation even have provided conflicting alerts over whether or not negotiations may happen.
This is what to know concerning the letter, Iran’s nuclear program and the general tensions which have stalked relations between Tehran and Washington because the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Why did Trump write the letter?
Trump dispatched the letter to Khamenei on March 5, then gave a tv interview the following day during which he acknowledged sending it. He stated: “I’ve written them a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to barter as a result of if now we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a horrible factor.’” Since returning to the White Home, the president has been pushing for talks whereas concurrently ratcheting up sanctions and suggesting a navy strike by Israel or the U.S. may goal Iranian nuclear websites.
A earlier letter Trump the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dispatched throughout his first time period drew an indignant retort from the supreme chief.
However Trump’s letters to North Korean chief Kim Jong Un in his first time period led to face-to-face conferences, although no offers to restrict Pyongyang’s atomic bombs and a missile program able to reaching the continental U.S.
How has Iran reacted?
Iran has provided a collection of seemingly contradictory responses. Khamenei himself stated he wasn’t taken with talks with a “bullying authorities.”
However Iranian diplomats together with International Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier prompt that talks over ensures that Tehran would not search a nuclear weapon may very well be potential. Araghchi, who took half in negotiations for Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, later toughened his tone and stated talks could not occur below U.S. stress, following Khamenei’s lead.
Nonetheless, Araghchi nonetheless met with the Emirati diplomat carrying Trump’s letter.
Why does Iran’s nuclear program fear the West?
Iran has insisted for many years that its nuclear program is peaceable. Nonetheless, its officers more and more threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran now enriches uranium to close weapons-grade ranges of 60%, the one nation on this planet with out a nuclear weapons program to take action.
Underneath the unique 2015 nuclear deal, Iran was allowed to counterpoint uranium solely as much as 3.67% purity and to keep up a uranium stockpile of 300 kilograms (661 kilos). The final report by the Worldwide Atomic Power Company on Iran’s program put its stockpile at 8,294.4 kilograms (18,286 kilos) because it enriches a fraction of it to 60% purity.
U.S. intelligence companies assess that Iran has but to start a weapons program, however has “undertaken actions that higher place it to provide a nuclear gadget, if it chooses to take action.”
Why are relations so unhealthy between Iran and the U.S.?
Iran was as soon as one of many U.S.’s prime allies within the Mideast below Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who bought American navy weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA had fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah’s rule.
However in January 1979, the shah, fatally unwell with most cancers, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled towards his rule. The Islamic Revolution adopted, led by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and created Iran’s theocratic authorities.
Later that 12 months, college college students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, searching for the shah’s return and sparking the 444-day hostage disaster that noticed diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed. The Iran-Iraq conflict of the Nineteen Eighties noticed the U.S. again Saddam Hussein. The “Tanker Battle” throughout that battle noticed the U.S. launch a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea, whereas the U.S. later shot down an Iranian industrial airliner.
Iran and the U.S. have see-sawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy within the years since, with relations peaking when Tehran made a 2015 nuclear cope with world powers. However Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, sparking years of tensions within the Mideast that persist right now.
