Trump says Iran wants to negotiate after US show of force
US President Donald Trump said Iran now wants to negotiate a deal after the US strikes on its nuclear sites in June, arguing that renewed US military strength had changed Tehran’s stance.
US President Donald Trump said Iran now wants to negotiate a deal after the US strikes on its nuclear sites in June, arguing that renewed US military strength had changed Tehran’s stance.
“Iran is a different place” after the June strikes, Trump said aboard his plane en route to Florida on Friday. “Iran wants to negotiate a deal, too. Everybody wants to negotiate with us now.” He said this shift would not have happened “if we didn’t have military strength, if we didn’t rebuild our military in my first term.” He added that there had been “tremendous interest” in the Abraham Accords “since we put Iran out of business.”
The comments came a day after a senior aide in Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office outlined strict conditions under which talks with the United States could take place. Mehdi Fazaeli said negotiations were “not absolutely forbidden” if they were tightly controlled and served Iran’s higher interests, while stressing what he called deep mistrust of Washington.
Fazaeli said Khamenei had at times allowed narrow contacts on Iraq, Afghanistan and nuclear issues, but rejected talks that could be seen as retreat. Negotiations collapsed after Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran in June, followed by US attacks on nuclear facilities that killed hundreds of civilians and military personnel.
The UN nuclear watchdog said this week it has been unable to check Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile for five months. Before June, it had confirmed Iran held about 440 kilograms enriched to 60 percent.
Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote to the UN chief this week saying Trump had publicly admitted to directing Israel’s initial strikes and urged the United Nations to seek reparations from Washington.
