Trump said a new group of ’very reasonable’ Iranian negotiators are involved and have accepted most of Washington’s 15-point cease-fire proposal.
President Donald Trump said that talks with Iran—both direct and indirect—are ongoing and making “very good” progress, and urged Tehran to take the deal or face destruction of its critical infrastructure, with a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry denying negotiations are taking place.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on March 29, Trump signaled his conviction that diplomacy is gathering pace alongside ongoing military operations that the president said has already led to “regime change” in Tehran.
He said U.S. diplomats are engaging a new group of Iranian officials and that Tehran has agreed to most elements of a 15-point U.S. proposal, which it had previously rejected in favor of its own five-point counteroffer.
“We’ve had very good negotiations today with Iran, getting a lot of the things they should have given us a long time ago,” Trump said. “See how it works out. But they’re very good, moving along very nicely.”
Trump said the United States is now engaging a new group of Iranian officials following weeks of intense strikes that have decimated much of Iran’s military leadership and infrastructure. He suggested that the shift in leadership has opened a potential pathway to a deal, saying the current figures “seem to be much more reasonable” than their predecessors.
“It truly is regime change,” Trump said, referring to the cumulative impact of U.S. and Israeli operations targeting senior Iranian officials.
In a post on social media on Monday, Trump said Washington is in “serious discussions” with Iran’s “more reasonable” regime, urging Tehran’s new leaders to reach an agreement and reopen the Strait of Hormuz—or face the prospect of destruction of Iran’s energy and oil infrastructure, along with possible strikes against its water desalination plants.
“If for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ’stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells, and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!),” Trump wrote.
By Tom Ozimek
