Trump Not Ready To Negotiate With Iran To End War

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he’s not ready to make a deal to end the war with Iran despite the country’s willingness to do so “because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” but declined to say what those terms would be.

In a wide-ranging, nearly 30-minutes telephone interview with NBC News, the president also said he is working with other countries on a plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid surges in global oil prices, and he dismissed Americans’ concerns about rising gas prices since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint military operation two weeks ago.

The president also questioned whether Iran’s new supreme leader is “even alive.”

Trump said he was “surprised” that Iran decided to attack other Middle Eastern countries in response to the U.S.-Israeli operation, and that U.S. strikes on Kharg Island on Saturday “totally demolished” most of the island but that “we may hit it a few more times just for fun.”

He also slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he was “far more difficult to make a deal with” than Russian President Vladimir Putin over efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Trump’s comments follow criticism from global leaders after the U.S.eased sanctions on Russian oil in an effort to mitigate surging global oil prices.

Trump said he was unwilling to make a deal to end the war with Iran at this stage.

Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” he said, adding that any terms will have to be “very solid.”

When asked what the terms of a potential deal to end the war would be, the president responded: “I don’t want to say that to you.” But he agreed that a commitment from Iran to completely abandon any nuclear ambitions would be part of it.

NBC