After US-Israeli strikes assassinated the last longtime Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, President Trump says he would like to meet the new one.
Trump said he "would like to meet" Iran's Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in an interview published Wednesday. In surprising remarks, Trump told the New York Post's Pod Force One: "I would like to meet him, and we probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out."
Trump reasoned that "They've already agreed they're not going to have a nuclear weapon" - suggesting this could be the basis for new direct diplomatic engagement.
And yet the Iranians have already for years consistently stated they were never intent on achieving a nuclear bomb. All recent high level US intelligence community assessments have tended to support the claim that Iran was not seeking a nuke before the attacks of June as well as March into April, under Operation Epic Fury.
But Trump has also dismissed the intelligence, insisting that Iran was 'very close' before the US-Israeli interventions.
While Trump is now expressing openness to meeting the Ayatollah - who is said to be in hiding and only having limited, low-tech communications with his officials, for fear of being tracked by the CIA or Mossad - the Supreme Leader himself has not voiced a desire for such a meeting.
Tehran at this moment doesn't appear in the mood for 'talking' - and has lately said it is ready to let its military retaliation and response do the 'negotiating'.
The US President once again made claims about the text of the possible agreement. He claimed that "Iran has agreed not to acquire nuclear weapons." --Bloomberg
This seems another element of confused messaging from the White House, which has many times denounced the Ayatollah and his regime as 'murderous' and 'evil' and a 'tyrant' - and yet now Trump apparently wants to sit down with him for tea time or something.
Trump in the NY Post interview actually addressed the general atmosphere of confusion and contradictions from his administration, and from him personally.
"It's good if they’re confused, and the Iranians are confused," Trump stated.
He added: "But no, it’s just the way I am. It changes. I could leave here, I could give you an answer, and then in 20 minutes go into the Oval Office and I’ll realize my answer is now incorrect. Facts change and things change quickly."
In this context, he went on to defend the controversial decision to go to war in the first place, saying it could not have been delayed as Iran was on the brink of having a nuclear weapon.
"I couldn’t, I know because this is too important. If I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon. They would have had a nuclear weapon two weeks after the B-2 bomber struck. So if I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon."
Trump: "He's missing a lot of different parts."
He again in the interview called it a necessary "excursion" - saying, "They’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, lots of other good things are going to happen." From the interview, on the question of boots on the ground in Iran...
"You don’t need boots on the ground right now. We wiped out much of their military with just bombing. After three days their military was virtually wiped out. … And then if you read the New York Times you think they’re doing fantastically."
Trump elsewhere addressed the controversial Axios report which said Trump 'steamrolled' Israeli PM Netanyahu in a phone call. Per Bloomberg, "Trump said he swore at Benjamin Netanyahu in a call this week as the president tried to deescalate fighting in Lebanon and keep peace talks with Iran on track."
"I did," Trump said, acknowledging he chastised his ally. "I wouldn’t say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know."