Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country is not pursuing nuclear weapons and dismissed US President Donald Trump’s calls for negotiations as a “trick.”

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday rejected holding negotiations with the United States over a nuclear deal, as a letter was delivered from U.S. President Donald Trump calling for such talks.

The last time Trump tried to send a letter to Khamenei, through the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2019, the supreme leader mocked the effort. Abe ended up slipping the envelope under his leg in footage widely shared by Iranian state media to this day.

Though Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said he's not interested in talks with a "bullying government,” its struggles with economic woes coupled with internal turmoil, and recent direct attacks by Israel,

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that talks with the U.S. would not lift sanctions but rather strengthen them.

The US president says he has proposed talks on a deal to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and to avert military action.

A letter from U.S. President Donald Trump to Iran's clerical establishment has been delivered by Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson and state media said on Wednesday.