US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he was “pausing”\u00a0the destruction of energy plants in Iran to Monday, April 6.<\/p>\n
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media and others, they are going very well,” he said in a post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Thursday,\u00a0Trump signalled uncertainty about whether the United States was willing to strike\u00a0a deal\u00a0with Iran, even as he claimed Tehran was eager to negotiate.<\/p>\n
“They’re not fools. They’re very smart, actually, in a certain way. And they’re great negotiators,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting at the White House.<\/p>\n
Iran is “begging” to make a deal, he added.<\/p>\n
Read:\u00a0US, Israel ‘confirm’ death of Iranian IRGC naval commander<\/p>\n
“They’re great negotiators, and they are begging to work out a deal. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that. I don’t know if we’re willing to do that,” Trump said.<\/p>\n
Regional tensions have escalated\u00a0since February 28, when the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran that has killed more than 1,340 people so far, including then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and Gulf countries that are home to US military assets.<\/p>\n
Thirteen US service members have been killed and around 290 others have been injured since the operation began.<\/p>\n
10 oil tankers as a good gesture<\/p>\n
Trump\u00a0also said on Thursday that Iran was letting 10 \u200boil tankers transit the Strait of Hormuz as an \u200capparent goodwill gesture in negotiations.<\/p>\n
Trump made the comments at a Cabinet meeting in the White House, elaborating on what he \u200bhad previously described as a “present” from Iran.<\/p>\n
“They \u200bsaid, to show you the fact that we’re \u2060real and solid and we’re there, we’re going \u200bto let you have eight boats of oil, eight \u200bboats, eight big boats of oil,” Trump said. “I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they \u200bwere Pakistani-flagged… It ended up being 10 boats.”<\/p>\n
The \u200bWhite House did not immediately respond to a request for more \u200cdetails \u2060on the vessels.<\/p>\n
Trump’s comments came as he\u00a0pressed Iran\u00a0to agree to a deal that would clear the maritime chokepoint and end its nuclear program.<\/p>\n
The US president \u200bon Tuesday \u200bhad baffled \u2060some observers when he said that Iran had given the United States an \u200bexpensive, energy-related concession. At the time, he \u200bdeclined \u2060to say what exactly he meant.<\/p>\n
“They gave us a present and the present arrived today, and it was \u2060a \u200bvery big present, worth a tremendous \u200bamount of money,” Trump told reporters then.<\/p>\n
Deal or destruction<\/p>\n
Trump on Thursday urged Iran to make a \u200bdeal to end US and Israeli bombing \u200cor face more strikes on their country.<\/p>\n
“They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their \u200bnuclear ambitions and to join a new \u200bpath forward,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting \u2060at the White House. “We’ll see if they \u200bwant to do it. If they don’t, we’re their \u200bworst nightmare. In the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away.”<\/p>\n
Trump spoke after a senior Iranian official told\u00a0Reuters\u00a0\u200bon Thursday that Washington’s proposal for ending nearly \u200bfour weeks of fighting is “one-sided and unfair” but that diplomacy \u200ccontinues.<\/p>\n
Trump \u2060said Iranians were talking with the US and described them as desperate to make a deal, characterisations Tehran has denied.<\/p>\n
He also cast Iranian officials \u200bas “great negotiators” and \u200bsaid he \u2060was seeking an agreement that opens the Strait of Hormuz and shuts \u200bdown Tehran’s military ambitions.<\/p>\n
Trump suggested that a \u200bdeal \u2060might not ultimately come together.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that,” he said \u2060of the \u200bprospects for a deal. I \u200bdon’t know if we’re willing to do that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he was “pausing”\u00a0the destruction of energy plants in Iran to Monday, April 6. “Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media and others, they are going very well,” he said in a post on Truth Social. Earlier on Thursday,\u00a0Trump signalled …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2923,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}