Trump says he wrote to Iran leader seeking nuclear negotiations, but Iran says no talks under sanctions

President Trump has said he sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressing his desire to negotiate over the country’s advancing nuclear program. He made the announcement in an interview with Fox Business News, which Fox said was recorded this week. In the interview, Mr. Trump said he sent the letter “yesterday,” but the exact timing remained unclear.

“I would rather negotiate a deal. 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,” Mr. Trump said in a clip from the interview, which was shared by the network ahead of its full airing this weekend, Fox said.

“But the time is happening now. The time is coming up,” Mr. Trump said. “Something’s going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran — and I’ve written him 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.”

In the interview, Mr. Trump said he believed Iran wanted “to get that letter,” adding that “the other alternative is, we have to do something. Because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran’s state-run media said Friday that no letter had been received from Mr. Trump, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the French news agency AFP on Friday that Iran would not negotiate with the U.S. while heavy U.S. sanctions against the country remain in place.

A report last month by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran had “significantly increased production and accumulation of high enriched uranium,” marking a progression in the country’s nuclear program since Mr. Trump was reelected.

In 2018, during Mr. Trump’s first term, he unilaterally withdrew the United States from a negotiated deal with Iran and other world powers that was aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear program. Mr. Trump imposed a wide range of new sanctions on Iran at the time, calling it a policy of “maximum pressure” to force Tehran to broker a new deal. That policy has decimated Iran’s economy, but there have been no new negotiations between the two sides acknowledged publicly since.

Under the original nuclear deal, Iran was permitted to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity and maintain a stockpile of no more than 661 pounds at that level. At that purity, uranium can be used for medical, research and other civilian purposes, but not to build a nuclear weapon.

The most recent IAEA report found Iran was enriching more uranium to 60% purity — much closer to the level required for weapons, which is about 90%, and a level at which it was only confirmed to have started enriching after Mr. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear agreement. Its stockpile of that highly enriched uranium had risen as of February to about 606 pounds, according to the IAEA report.

Iran has long insisted its nuclear program is for entirely peaceful purposes, as tension has continued to rise with the U.S. over its sanctions, and with Israel over its war against the Iranian-backed, U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas.

Last August, Khamenei said there was “no harm” in engagement with the U.S., but more recently he said negotiations would not be “intelligent, wise or honorable.”

contributed to this report.