US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the new leadership in Iran wants to talk to him and that he agreed, according to an interview with The Atlantic magazine.“They want to talk, and I agreed to talk, so I will talk to them.
They should do so urgently. They should offer what is very practical and easy to do sooner. “They have waited a long time,” Trump said in the interview from his residence in Florida.Trump did not specify who he would speak to and did not say whether it would happen on Sunday or Monday, but he noted that some of the Iranians participating in the negotiations in recent weeks were no longer alive.
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“Most of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big hit — it was a big hit,” he said.
“They should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should have done it sooner. They played too nice.”Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that a leadership council composed of himself, the head of the judiciary, and a member of the powerful Guardian Council has temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.When asked if he was willing to prolong the US bombing campaign against Iran to support a popular uprising if it broke out, “Would they still have support if it took some time to overthrow the regime?” Trump was noncommittal.
“I have to look at the situation as it happens, Michael,” he said. “You can’t give an answer to that question.” But the president also expressed confidence that a successful uprising is coming, pointing to signs of celebration on the streets of Iran and rallies in support of the Iranian diaspora in New York and Los Angeles. “It’s going to happen. You see it, and I believe it’s going to happen. A lot of people are very happy there and in Los Angeles and in many other places,” he said.
Trump told the magazine that he was pleased with the response of the Iranian people so far. “Knowing that it’s very dangerous, knowing that I’ve told everyone to stay put — I think it’s a very dangerous place right now,” Lee said. “People there are screaming happily in the streets, but at the same time, there are a lot of bombs falling.”