President Donald Trump said Sunday that Irans hastily assembled leadership is seeking direct talks with Washington just one day after a sweeping U.S.-Israeli military campaign eliminated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to the Daily Caller, President Trump told The Atlantic in a phone interview from Mar-a-Lago that Tehrans new power brokers are already reaching out. They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them, he said, adding pointedly, They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.
He criticized the regime for dragging out weeks of diplomacy and confirmed that several Iranian officials involved in those talks were killed in the strikes. Most of those people are gone, he told the magazine, adding, They played too cute, while declining to say when negotiations might formally begin.
Inside Iran, President Masoud Pezeshkian announced that a three-man council has temporarily assumed the powers of the supreme leader, Reuters reported. The interim body is composed of Pezeshkian himself, the head of the judiciary, and a representative of the powerful Guardians Council.
A senior White House official separately told The Associated Press that Irans new potential leadership has indicated a readiness to engage with the United States. At the same time, the official stressed that the ongoing military campaign continues unabated.
President Trump expressed confidence that the Iranian people will ultimately bring down the Islamist regime, pointing to scenes of celebration both inside Iran and among expatriates in Los Angeles and New York, as reported by The Atlantic. In a video message released Saturday, he appealed directly to ordinary Iranians, declaring, Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.
Speaking to CNBC, he said the joint operation is ahead of schedule and moving along very well. The Pentagon confirmed that three U.S. service members were killed and five seriously wounded in the opening phase of Operation Epic Fury, according to U.S. Central Command.
For President Trump, the offensive marks a long-delayed reckoning with a regime that has sponsored terror and destabilized the region for generations. People have wanted to do it for 47 years, he told The Atlantic, underscoring his view that decisive force, not appeasement, is the only language Tehrans rulers truly understand.
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