President Donald Trump added another feather to his cap this Monday by announcing that negotiations between the United States and Iran had resumed, after Tehran announced they were walking away from the table due to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon. However, in an initial reaction to the Islamic republic, Trump downplayed his own statement, saying he had not been informed beforehand. “I think it’s fine if they have finished talking,” he replied with apparent indifference.
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“That does not mean we are going to start dropping bombs all over the place,” Trump emphasized, who on Friday said he would soon decide on a proposal to extend the apparent ceasefire agreed upon in early April. Initially, this extension would be for 60 days with the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Over the weekend, it emerged that he was not satisfied with some of the conditions outlined in the working memorandum and especially wanted the Iranian commitment to renounce the nuclear weapon to be strengthened.
The U.S. president had no public events scheduled for this Monday, but held phone conversations with NBC and CNBC where he expressed his first reaction to Tehran’s decision to pause talks due to the escalation of hostilities by Israel in Lebanon.
However, Trump issued a statement on his social network explaining that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and stressed that “there will be no soldiers going to Beirut.” He also wrote that “any troops that were on the way have already been withdrawn.”
“Likewise, through high-level representatives, I had a good conversation with Hezbollah and they agreed to cease all fire, meaning Israel will not attack them and they will not attack Israel,” he emphasized.
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So, according to Trump in another post, negotiations had resumed between the U.S. and Iran, which are now “moving at a fast pace.”
This mediation seems a direct response to Iran’s challenge to pause talks with the U.S. But initially, Trump led to state that “it is an appropriate thing to say, because the Iranians are better negotiators than fighters.”
“We will maintain the blockade,” he promised regarding Iranian ports while the Islamic republic continues blocking commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices rose again due to the stalemate in these negotiations.
“If they don’t want to talk, that’s fine with me. I think it’s okay. I don’t have a special interest in talking either. We talk too much,” Trump insisted in his phone responses which, once again, were later denied.
Early this morning, in another post on his platform, Trump had insisted that Iran wants to reach an agreement, even blaming Democratic and Republican lawmakers for obstructing that negotiation, accusing them of the fact that a deal has not yet been reached.
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