Trump says Tehran leaders ‘begging’ for deal
DUBAI/TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Iran was desperate to make a deal to end nearly four weeks of fighting, contradicting the Iranian foreign minister who said his country was reviewing a US proposal but had no intention of holding talks to wind down the conflict.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said that Iranian negotiators were begging for a deal, and that public statements of them reviewing the terms were “wrong.”
The conflicting statements came as the economic and humanitarian toll of the war mounted, with fuel shortages spreading worldwide, sending companies and countries scrambling to contain the fallout.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said while there had been no dialogue or negotiation with the US, various messages had been exchanged through intermediaries.
“Messages being conveyed through our friendly countries and us responding by stating our positions or issuing the necessary warnings is not called negotiation or dialogue,” Araqchi said in a state television interview on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, at an event in Washington, Trump had said Iranian leaders “are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they’re afraid to say it because they will be killed by their own people. They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”
Trump has not identified who the US is negotiating with in Iran, with many high-ranking officials among the thousands of people that killed across the Middle East since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran has since launched strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states.
Iran’s supreme commander Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on the first day of the conflict by an Israeli strike and was replaced by his son Mojtaba, who has been wounded in strikes and not been seen in any photograph or video clip since his appointment.
Reuters