US President Donald Trump said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.
However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the United States out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said, “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect US-Iranian talks last week in which the sides agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal. A US official said the discussions yielded “very good progress”.
Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure”.
