The accusation reinforces the level of hostility between the two nations, which has been exacerbated by President Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the reimposition of heavy sanctions.
Mahmoud Vaezi, chief of staff to the Iranian President, told Iran’s Mehr News Agency: “Trump asked the Iranian delegation eight times to have a meeting with the President.”
Bahrain Ghasemi, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, stated in October the requests made by the US administration to hold meetings with the Iranian delegation had been rejected.
However Mr Vaezi’s claims reveal a level of persistence of the US administration which had previously gone unreported.
The Iranian official took direct aim at the US’s foreign policy and pointed to Iran’s frosty relationship with the US for the repeated rejections.
He said: “We have a transparent policy and clear position with regard to our relations with the US.
“The characteristic of this establishment and people is that they will not yield to pressure.”
The official also rejected the notion Iran would buckle to US demands and enter a deal with the Trump administration in a similar fashion to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, raising the possibility of a long-term stand-off between the two foes.
He said: “Trump should know that Iran and its people are different from North Korea and its people.”
Since the 2017 UN General Assembly meeting, President Trump has attempted to aggressively isolate the Middle Eastern nation by withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimposing strict economic sanctions on the country.
The US leader also included Iran on his travel-ban list of mostly Muslim countries.
Iran has in turn sued the US in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, demanding they “terminate the 8 May sanctions without delay”, as they are already having damaging economic impacts on the nation.
The US state department rejected the lawsuit, stating: “Iran’s application is baseless, and we intend to vigorously defend the United States before the ICJ.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also took direct aim at the US last week, stating: “On the 3rd anniversary of JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, it remains a trump of multilateral diplomacy despite US actions.
“While we knew the US can’t be trusted to keep its word, as its allies have now discovered, JCPOA proves that toxic unilateralism of the Trump administration means it can’t be relied on to honour any deal.”
However some critics have accused of Iran of stoking animosity between the two nations by failing to engage with US diplomats.
Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the New York Times: “The biggest obstacle to a U.S.-Iran dialogue is not Trump but Khamenei.
“Trump flew halfway around the world to meet with Kim Jong-un. Khamenei hasn’t left Iran since 1989.”
The White House and the US Foreign Office did not respond to requests for comments on the issue.