--- title: Iran Officials Tell President Trump Not to Bother Calling description: Iranian officials rebuffed President Trump’s suggestion that they call him to try to defuse frictions. canonical: https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-12T16:45:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:48.076Z article:section: Politics og:title: Iran Officials: 'Nobody Is Going to Call' President Trump og:description: Antagonism between the countries, already high, has worsened this month og:url: https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f38f05f11e52939/698949d28fd2eeaaf235e467/trump-iran-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Iran Officials Tell President Trump Not to Bother Calling og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Iran Officials: 'Nobody Is Going to Call' President Trump twitter:description: Antagonism between the countries, already high, has worsened this month twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f38f05f11e52939/698949d28fd2eeaaf235e467/trump-iran-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Iran Officials: 'Nobody Is Going to Call' President Trump > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: U.S. Deployments Followed 'Clear Indications' Iran Was Preparing to Attack, Official Says [Watch (HLS stream): U.S. Deployments Followed 'Clear Indications' Iran Was Preparing to Attack, Official Says](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NqU0XTdG.m3u8) (1:08)  _Published 2019-05-06. A White House decision to dispatch an aircraft carrier and other military resources to send a message to Iran followed “clear indications” that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were preparing to possibly attack U.S. forces in the region._ by [Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg Contributor May 12, 2019 4:45 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Roosevelt Room event at the White House May 9, 2019 in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Roosevelt Room event at the White House May 9, 2019 in Washington, D.C.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg Contributor May 12, 2019 4:45 PM UTC Iranian officials rebuffed President Donald Trump’s suggestion that they call him to try to defuse frictions as the U.S. ratcheted up its actions against Tehran. Several top Iranian aides and lawmakers predicted Sunday that the current tensions wouldn’t lead to war, calling the U.S. deployment of an aircraft carrier, warship, bomber jets and missile defenses to the Middle East a propaganda stunt. Antagonism between the countries, already high, has worsened this month since Trump eliminated exceptions to U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil. The Islamic Republic responded by threatening to scale back its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal. “Trump has not only shown that he has no respect for the signature of the previous U.S. government but that he’s willing to violate UN Security Council resolutions and other international agreements,” said Kamal Kharazi, the head of a council that advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the Islamic Students’ News Agency. Hours earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeated Trump’s offer to chat to try to sort out differences. The U.S. has claimed, with no details, that Iran has been mobilizing proxies in Iraq and Syria to attack its forces, and its new deployments have stirred talk of war. “The Americans know that no other war will bring about their defeat to such an extent and that’s why there won’t be a war, because war is not part of the U.S. strategy,” Heshmatollah Falahatpishe, the head of Iran’s parliamentary commission for national security and foreign affairs, said in a speech before lawmakers, according to ISNA. “Nobody is going to call Trump, and eventually the Americans will be forced to raise the issue of negotiations with Iran in a serious way,” he added. Trump has made confronting Iran the linchpin of his Middle East policy, and his withdrawal from the nuclear deal and reimposition of sanctions meant to choke off Iranian oil exports and access to international banks has pounded the Islamic Republic’s economy. Tehran responded to the U.S. removal of sanctions waivers and the new military deployments by threatening to stop abiding by the nuclear deal’s limitations on uranium enrichment if Europe doesn’t remove obstacles to foreign investment into Iran and ease the flow of Iranian oil within 60 days. While Iran has always denied its nuclear program had a military component, its uranium enrichment activities had been controversial because Western powers said it could potentially be used in bombmaking, so the threat to abandon limits drew another round of U.S. sanctions, this time on Iranian metals. Kharazi said Europe could show its willingness to keep the nuclear accord alive by making a trade channel for Iran operational. But the economic sanctions Trump imposed last year have made it tough, if not impossible, for European companies and banks to risk defying the U.S. and getting caught in its sanctions net. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/"},"headline":"Iran Officials: 'Nobody Is Going to Call' President Trump","datePublished":"2019-05-12T16:45:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:48.076Z","description":"Antagonism between the countries, already high, has worsened this month","url":"https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/","keywords":["Iran","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f38f05f11e52939/698949d28fd2eeaaf235e467/trump-iran-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Golnar Motevalli / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5f38f05f11e52939/698949d28fd2eeaaf235e467/trump-iran-talks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Iran Officials Tell President Trump Not to Bother Calling","caption":"President Trump Discusses Ending Surprise Medical Billing","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/iran/","name":"Iran"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/","name":"Iran Officials: 'Nobody Is Going to Call' President Trump"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"U.S. Deployments Followed 'Clear Indications' Iran Was Preparing to Attack, Official Says","description":"A White House decision to dispatch an aircraft carrier and other military resources to send a message to Iran followed “clear indications” that Iranian and Iranian proxy forces were preparing to possibly attack U.S. forces in the region.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/NqU0XTdG/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-05-06T13:29:33.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NqU0XTdG.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/","duration":"PT1M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5587804/iran-trump-frictions/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```