US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he is willing to talk to Iran’s leadership and that some in Iran want to talk to the US, but with the chaos after the killing of several levels of leadership, “we have no idea who they are.” He said he talks to everyone because “sometimes good things come out of it,” even though some questioned why he should talk to Iran.
At the same time, he said he did not know if the Iranian regime was ready yet. “They’re taking a pounding. I don’t know if they’re ready yet, and we don’t even know their leaders,” he said. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that Iran saw no reason to talk with the US.
He added that Iran had never asked for a ceasefire or negotiations. Trump was speaking to reporters after a meeting on renovating the Kennedy Centre in Washington, the national performance venue now renamed after him. When asked about Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father Ali Khamenei after he was killed in a bombing raid at the outset of the conflict, Trump said, “We don’t know if he’s dead or not.”
He said nobody had seen him, unlike his father, who often spoke in public. He added that this could be for many reasons. Trump said people were claiming that Mojtaba Khamenei was badly disfigured, that he had lost one or both legs, or had been severely injured.
Others were saying he was dead. “Nobody’s saying he’s 100 per cent healthy,” he said. Trump sidestepped a reporter’s question about what he would demand of Iran if talks were to take place.