On March 7, during an interview with * Fox Business*, President Donald J. Trump) asserted that he had dispatched a letter to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stating: * "I hope you're going to negotiate because it's going to be a lot better for Iran... If we have to go in militarily, it's going to be a terrible thing for them... The other alternative is we have to do something, because you can't let them have a nuclear weapon."* Later that day, while addressing the press from the Oval Office, the president reaffirmed): * "We're down to final strokes with Iran,... We can't let them have a nuclear weapon."* The president's latest declarations have elicited divergent reactions from the Islamic Republic, reflecting both internal factionalism within the ruling elite regarding strategic engagement with the United States and a lack of bureaucratic cohesion.
