US President Donald Trump continues to send harsh messages toward Iran, hours after declaring that contacts between the sides were expected to resume. On Monday evening, he launched a fierce attack on the Iranians, accusing them of “two-faced” behavior and claiming Tehran is holding talks with Washington even as it publicly denies it.
1+The statement comes shortly after Trump announced overnight that following the cancellation of a planned strike on Iran, an understanding was reached regarding the Strait of Hormuz, even predicting an agreement could be reached on the nuclear program. Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, he said, “There is a deal with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz and there will be a deal on nuclear disarmament,” adding that negotiations were scheduled to begin today.
Trump even claimed the initiative to resume contacts came from Tehran. “Iran also strongly requested it,” he said. “They said, ‘We want to make a deal now.’ Many times they say that to me, and then they walk out and say, ‘We don’t know what he’s talking about.’ Now we are talking to them in the form of negotiations. It will start tomorrow afternoon and we’ll see if it works out. I’d love to do it—it would save many, many lives.”
When asked if he set a deadline for Iran to reach an agreement, he replied: “We’ll see, we’ll see how it goes. We are ready to strike whenever we want. Do I prefer to make a deal? I don’t want people to die. I asked Saudi Arabia—the King, ah, the Crown Prince. I asked, what would you prefer to do? Do you prefer us to do this or not? And they said, we prefer a deal over an attack because you don’t know where those attacks will lead.”
However, just hours later, Trump published a particularly harsh post accusing the Iranian leadership of denying the ongoing contacts between the sides.
1+“The Iranian leadership is two-faced beyond belief!” Trump wrote. “They request a meeting, some would say even ‘beg,’ talks begin, and others are already scheduled for the very near future, and at the same time they say openly and proudly that they are not holding talks at all, discussing nothing, and only dealing with ‘Oman.’
“Afterward, they continue with their usual rhetoric, claiming the Strait of Hormuz will be forcefully operated by them, when in fact it is already under the complete control of the US Navy and our ‘blockade’—or as some call it, ‘America’s Wall of Steel.’ Nothing goes through to Iran unless we want it to, and nothing will go through unless a deal or total surrender is achieved. Whether Iran wants to admit it or not, we are indeed talking in order to solve a problem they themselves created over decades. It’s very simple: Iran will never have nuclear weapons!”