politics
Trump Says He Would Be Honored to Meet Iran's Supreme Leader if Deal Is Reached
President Trump stated he would be honored to meet Iran's supreme leader to reach a deal ending the U.S.-Iran conflict. Iranian officials said talks are at a deadlock and called on the U.S. to unfreeze assets.
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President Trump said Friday he would be honored to meet Iran's supreme leader if the meeting produced a deal to end the conflict between the United States and Iran. Trump told reporters at the White House that the United States would win the conflict either militarily or on paper. He added that he had no desire to meet Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei unless a deal was on the table.
Central Command said its forces shot down four Iranian one-way attack drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and struck Iranian coastal radar sites in Goruk and on Qeshm Island. CENTCOM said the drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic and that U.S. forces acted in self-defense.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its navy fired a missile and a drone as warning shots at two U.S. destroyers in the Sea of Oman in retaliation for U.S. actions against commercial vessels. CENTCOM denied that any U.S. Navy ships had been attacked.
asset unfreeze Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser to Iran's supreme leader, told CNN that U.S.-Iran negotiations are at a deadlock and that the ball is in Trump's court. Rezaei said Iran wants the United States to unseal billions of dollars in frozen assets as a sign of trust-building and warned that continued blockade could lead Iran to expand the conflict.
“The ball is in Trump's court.”
humanitarian impact Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued after Hezbollah rejected a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health said at least 32 people were killed in Lebanon in the past day, bringing the total death toll since March 2 to 3,558.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the Hezbollah-Israel fighting is a war fought on Lebanese land at the expense of its people and accused Iran of using Lebanon as a bargaining chip. Trump said a lot of oil is still moving through the Strait of Hormuz and that gas and fertilizer prices would drop relatively quickly once a deal is reached.
