President Trump on Monday told reporters that talks with Iran are “going on right now” and expected to “go quickly” after Iran earlier claimed they were not participating in negotiations.
“They’re not denying it now,” Trump said. “This is a last chance. This is not something that if it doesn’t happen. This is a last chance for them to sign a good document.”
This comes after Trump told reporters on Sunday that negotiations would begin Monday afternoon, following his decision to call off strikes. The strikes this week would have been “the biggest attack since World War II,” he said.
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However, the status of negotiations was unclear after Iran denied that it would participate in talks with the US, adding that the pre-war status quo of transit and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz “will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th.”
The President blasted the “unbelievably duplicitous” Iranian leaders on Monday ahead of his press conference in response.
“They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with ‘Oman.’ They then go on to give their usual blather in saying, the Strait of Hormuz will be operated powerfully by them,” Trump said.
He further noted that the US Naval blockade of Iranian ports will continue until “a Deal, or Total Surrender” is reached.
During the press conference on Monday afternoon, Trump confirmed to reporters that the talks were back on and “going on right now.”
“We’re straight about it, but they deny. But they’re not denying it now. They just put out a statement, not denying it. But for some reason, when they’re talking, they don’t like saying that they’re talking,” the President said.
He again said that the planned attacks would have been bigger than “any attack since World War II, telling reporters, “We were going to hit them very hard yesterday, very, very hard, harder than any attack, I think I can say, General, from a point of knowledge: Any attack since World War II. That’s pretty big. And we were set to go, and they called, and in addition, Saudi Arabia called, and UAE called, Qatar called.”
“We want to talk about the Strait, but more importantly, from my standpoint, we want to talk about the denuclearization of Iran because this is what it’s all about. This is why I’m doing this, and it should have been done, it’s now 50 years; we keep saying 47 years, but three years have gone by,” Trump continued. “We’re talking at the request of Iran, backed by Saudi Arabia, backed by UAE, and backed by Qatar, in particular, but others also. Many countries called, the leaders of many; I’m friendly with a lot of them, almost all of them, one way or the other, and they all wanted to give this a last chance.”
Later in the press conference, when Trump was asked for details of the scope of the negotiations, the President said the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear capabilities is the core focus of the talks.
“You’ll find out today or tomorrow. I mean, they’re going to go quickly, one way or the other. It’s not very complex,” he said. “We’re talking about the Strait, the opening of the Strait, having it open literally by tomorrow, completely open, and that’s phase one.”
The President continued, “And phase two is we then will talk about the nuclear capacity, the nuclear, you know, as we’ve been mentioning. Basically… the denuclearization of Iran has to happen, has to happen, and that’ll be the second phase.”
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