Washington, United States – Donald Trump said Friday that Iran faces severe consequences if it fails to reach a nuclear deal, after Tehran responded to a letter from the US president calling for talks.
Trump, who in 2018 pulled the United States out of an agreement to relieve sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program, now says he is open to talks on a deal that could reduce the risk of military escalation.
The US president revealed at the start of March that he had sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
At the same time, Trump has pushed ahead with his “maximum pressure” program of additional sanctions on Tehran and the threat of military action if it refuses to negotiate.
Tehran has refused to negotiate directly with Washington under these circumstances, but has held out the possibility of indirect talks.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the official IRNA news agency that he had delivered a letter responding to Trump’s outreach to Oman, which has served as an intermediary in the past in the absence of US-Iran diplomatic relations.
Iranians stage annual pro-Palestinian rallies
Many held placards demanding “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, and chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans, according to an AFP journalist.
“I feel in the near future Gaza will be victorious and Israel, as history dictates, will face collapse and the flag of Islam’s might will be hoisted in Gaza,” Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, former commander of Iran’s Army Ground Forces, told AFP.
Keffiyeh-wearing 22-year-old university student Fatemeh Mohebbi said she attended the event to “condemn the crimes that are happening”.
Similar rallies were held across the country, state TV images showed.
“Your march on Quds Day will nullify all the enemies’ tricks and false words,” Khamenei said in a video message on Thursday. The supreme leader has the final say in major state policies.
Quds (Jerusalem) Day commemorations were launched in 1979 by the Islamic republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The marches, which call for Jerusalem to be returned to the Palestinians, are traditionally held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
State television also reported naval movements off the Gulf coast and in the Caspian Sea on Thursday.
“We will fight to the last against anyone who carries out aggression against us and we will destroy them,” said Alireza Tangsiri, naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran’s military.
The authorities had called on Iranians to come out in force for the demonstrations against Israel, Iran’s arch-nemesis, which it does not recognise and which it refers to as “the Zionist regime”.
“The resistance will continue until the liberation of holy Quds and the destruction of the Zionist regime,” a statement from the armed forces general staff said Thursday.
“The only solution to the Palestinian issue… requires continued resistance and global solidarity to fight the Zionist regime,” a separate statement from the army said.
