President Donald Trump says he's sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in hopes of negotiating a new agreement to curtail Iran's nuclear program.
“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,'" President Trump said in an interview with Fox Business that is scheduled to air on Sunday.
The White House on Friday confirmed that the president had sent a letter but did not offer further details about its contents. Iran is thought to be aware of the letter but has so far not issued a response.
The president was ambiguous in his comments referencing the potential alternative of military intervention in Iran.
“Hopefully, we can have a peace deal,” President Trump told reporters on Friday. “I’m not speaking out of strength or weakness. I’m just saying I’d rather see a peace deal than the other. But the other will solve the problem.”
The Trump administration has insisted that Iran must be prevented from developing nuclear weapons.
Iran has said its program is for peaceful purposes, but U.S. intelligence analysis has found the country has "undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so."
During his first term in 2018, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from a multinational nuclear deal with Iran, which the U.S. had signed with France, the U.K., Germany, Russia, China and Iran in 2015. It put restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.
