US president says Iran initially wanted talks through intermediaries, but he thinks Tehran has changed its position.Washington, DC – Donald Trump has suggested that Iran may agree to direct talks with the United States despite the intensifying tensions and back-and-forth threats between the two countries.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the US president appeared optimistic about the prospect of face-to-face diplomacy with Tehran.
“I think it’s better if we have direct talks,” he said. “I think it goes faster, and you understand the other side a lot better than if you go through intermediaries. They wanted to use intermediaries. I don’t think that’s necessarily true any more.”
Last month, Trump sent a letter to the Iranian leadership calling for negotiations to address Iran’s nuclear programme. The US president has also been regularly threatening Iran with military strikes.
Tehran has rejected the prospect of direct talks with Washington but said it is open to indirect diplomacy.
It is not clear whether Iran has indeed changed its stance or if Trump is speculating about Tehran’s position.
The US administration has been piling up sanctions against Iran with the aim of completely choking off the country’s oil exports – particularly to China. Advertisement
In 2018, during his first term as president, Trump nixed a multilateral deal that saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against its economy.
Tehran maintains that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon. Israel, the top US ally in the region, is widely believed to have an …