Washington, March 7 : US President Donald Trump has said he wrote a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei inviting him to negotiate a deal. He did not divulge more.

Trump divulged the communication to Iran in an interview. A short clip from the interview was released on Friday.

He said the time for a deal with Iran 'is coming up' in response to a question about his reaction to a Russian offer to help negotiate with Iran.

'Something is going to happen one way or the other,' he said further.

'I hope that Iran, and I've written him a letter saying, I hope you're going to negotiate, because 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,' he added, indicating a military solution.

He had earlier in the response to the Iran question said there were only two ways Iran can be handled ' militarily or a deal.

President Trump restored his 2020 policy of 'maximum pressure' on Iran on February 4 'denying (it) all paths to a nuclear weapon, and countering Iran's malign influence abroad'.

But he has also said he was open to talks. The letter to Khamenei marks the first concrete step in that direction.

There has been no response to Iran yet. But Khamenei said recently he is not in favor of direct talks with the Trump administration because it cannot be trusted. president Masoud Pezeshkian has said he is not averse to direct talks.

'They have intensified all the sanctions and now they are saying that let's talk to each other,' he has said.

'First prove that you are open to dialogue and then we can talk to each other.' But, in the end, Iran will go with the supreme leader's decision.

/IANS