Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said calls for negotiations by “bully states” are aimed at dominating others, not resolving issues, after US President Donald Trump urged him to reach a nuclear deal.

Trump revealed this week that he was seeking to strike a new deal with the Iranian regime, after withdrawing from an Obama-era agreement in his first term.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decried “bullying governments” in an apparent response to a letter the White House sent to Iran earlier in the week.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says he rejects a U.S. push for talks between the two countries because they would be aimed at imposing restrictions on Iranian missile range and its regional influence.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran will not be bullied into negotiations, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had sent a letter to the country's top authority to negotiate a nuclear deal.

President Trump said he sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last week asking that the two leaders "negotiate" over the Islamic republic's nuclear program. On Saturday, the Iranian leader condemned the effort by unnamed "bullying governments" to make a deal over the program.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks under a portrait of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, as armed forces commander slisten, at rear, in a ceremony meeting a group of officials, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Trump said on Friday he had warned Tehran in a letter it could face military action unless it agreed to talks for a nuclear deal. In a furious response on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not negotiate with "bullying governments" insisting on talks.