Iran rebuffs US threats while preparing reply to Trump's letter

Arsalan Shahla, Bloomberg News on Mar 21, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Iran’s supreme leader reiterated a warning to the U.S. and its allies that they won’t be able to force his country into negotiations through threats and vowed “harsh blows” against any American aggression.

“We are never the ones to initiate a conflict,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a televised speech on Friday. “But the U.S., and others, would face harsh blows if they commit any act of malice against the Iranian nation.”

Khamenei was addressing recent exchanges between Iran and the U.S., though he didn’t mention a letter from President Donald Trump that Tehran’s said it will respond to soon within days.

Trump has said he’d prefer to resolve tensions with Iran diplomatically, but has threatened military action if the Islamic Republic rules out talks over its nuclear program and other issues.

In the letter, which the United Arab Emirates delivered to Tehran last week, Trump told Khamenei he has a two-month deadline to reach a new accord, Bloomberg reported. On Thursday, Iranian officials said they will deliver a response in the coming days.

Khamenei and his officials have emphasized in recent weeks that the country will not engage in direct talks with the U.S. as long as the Trump administration maintains its “maximum pressure” strategy.

Still, the country’s economic strains — including high inflation — have led some senior Iranian figures to signal that negotiations are needed to get sanctions eased.

In 2018, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 accord that had limited Iran’s atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief, and reimposed harsh trade and financial penalties on the country.

Concerns between the West and Iran have heightened over the past 18 months, with Hamas’s attack on Israel triggering a multi-front conflict between the Jewish state and Iranian proxy militias. Israel and Iran twice fired missiles directly on each other last year, an unprecedented situation that briefly sparked fears of a war between the two countries.

Israel has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, something that would probably need to be coordinated with the U.S. to ensure it’s successful. Tehran has said any attack on its atomic facilities — which it says are for peaceful purposes only — would be tantamount to an act of war.