STRASBOURG, France - Iran is mulling over engaging the United States in nuclear talks, as officials gradually disclose some of the contents of the American president's recent letter to Tehran’s leadership.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump addressed a letter to the Iranian leadership, pressing them for talks over the nuclear issue, and threatening military action in the absence of an entry into negotiations.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Tehran’s response to the letter has been delivered to Oman.

On Friday, Iran marked Jerusalem Day, held annually on the last Friday of Ramadan in support of Palestine. In statements and events commemorating the occasion, several Iranian officials commented on the content of Trump’s letter, the Iranian response, and the possibility of engaging in nuclear talks.

Trump's letter “has different dimensions. Part of it is a threat, but it also tries to open a door for diplomacy,” said Araghchi.

Muhammad Kadhim Al Sadiq, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, said that Trump's letter included four issues: the resistance front and armed groups, Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), ballistic missiles, and the nuclear issue.

Ali Shamkhani, the former secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, on Friday said that Tehran’s response “was a response of restraint.”

“God willing, we will reach an agreement and I have hope in these negotiations with the US,” said Ali Larijani, a senior advisor to the Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, during a Jerusalem Day march.

Regardless, Iran has yet to declare an official stance on the nuclear negotiations. “It is wrong to experience something twice. The US purpose in negotiations is to disarm Iran,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament.

Soon after Trump’s letter, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected the idea of engaging in negotiations with the US on the nuclear issue, calling Washington’s proposal for talks “a deception of public opinion.”

The policy of mediated negotiation

Tehran has responded to Trump's letter through Oman. The US, however, had sent a letter to Iran through the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The UAE is one of the countries that has normalized relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement. This is believed to be the reason why Iran sent a reply to the letter through Oman, a kind of protest and expression of dissatisfaction with the UAE's policy.

Araghchi said on Friday that Muscat has played the role of mediator in the past and “we have good experience” with it.

Oman has repeatedly acted as a mediator between Iran and the US. Iran launched a round of secret talks in 2012 under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, mediated by Oman, which led to the nuclear deal in 2015.

The nuclear deal ended 12 years of tensions between Iran and Western countries and opened the door to major investments in Iran, with major companies such as Airbus, Boeing, and French Total investing in Iran.

This heralded that the Iranian economy would grow, and it did so over the next two years, and Tehran, in turn, abandoned much of its nuclear program and restricted its missile program.

Trump: A headache for Iran

When Trump assumed office during his first tenure in 2017, he adopted several policies aimed at weakening Tehran, effectively undoing all the progress Iran had made in the previous two years. Trump unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018 and put maximum economic pressure on Iran.

His defeat in the 2020 elections opened a window of hope for Iran. Hassan Rouhani's government, which had previously signed the nuclear deal with then-President Barack Obama, hoped to reach an agreement with the newly-elected Joe Biden.

But this time the situation was very difficult. Iran's fundamentalist wings were against an agreement with the US. In 2021, Iran's conservative-majority parliament passed a bill that virtually ended all potential for further negotiations.

In 2024, when total power in Iran was in the hands of the traditionalists, the government of Ebrahim Raisi entered a round of indirect talks with Washington, again mediated by Oman. With the death of Raisi, the negotiations came to a halt.

Trump's return to power for a second term was an alarming development for the Islamic regime. In early 2020, Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds branch of the Revolutionary Guards, was killed in a Trump-ordered American strike in Baghdad. He was a trusted figure of the Iranian leader and responsible for Iranian policy in the region.

In June 2019, Khamenei told then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Iran will not negotiate with the US, asserting “I do not consider Trump, as a person, deserving to exchange messages with.”

Abe was trying to mediate between Tehran and Washington and had reportedly brought a message from Trump to the Iranian leader. He ultimately did not hand Khamenei the letter after seeing his stance.

Over the past year, the Iranian leader has taken a tough stance on negotiations with the US.

“We sat for several years and negotiated. That very person [Trump] tore up the completed, finalized, and signed agreement and threw it off the table,” Khamenei said earlier in March.

“You should not negotiate with such a government, it is unwise, it is not intelligent, it is not honorable to negotiate,” he had stated in earlier remarks.

But now the situation in Iran is not favorable, politically and economically. Iran has been subjected to many setbacks in the Middle East, is under international pressure, and European countries have threatened to withdraw from the nuclear deal and impose all sanctions on Iran. Additionally, Iran's economy is on the verge of collapse, and there are many protests in the country. Tehran may not have much of a choice.

“The letter says the Islamic Republic is ready to negotiate indirectly,” said Shamkhani.

This method of talks has been tried on several occasions before and some political figures in Iran believe that Iran will not achieve its goals in this way and must negotiate directly with the US.

“I sent them a letter just recently, and I said, 'you're going to have to make a decision one way or the other, and we're going to either have to talk and talk it out, or very bad things are going to happen to Iran.' And I don't want that to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

“I don’t say this through strength or weakness, but my big preference is we work it out with Iran. But if we don't work it out, bad bad things are going to happen to Iran,” he added.