U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s new leadership wants to open talks with him and that he has agreed, according to an interview with The Atlantic.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them,” Trump said in the interview from his Florida residence. “They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.”
Trump did not specify whom he would speak with or when the discussions might take place.
In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said U.S. forces had destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval vessels, including what he described as relatively large and important ships. He said additional vessels were being targeted and that Iran’s naval headquarters had been largely destroyed in a separate strike. He did not provide evidence or operational details.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a temporary leadership council composed of himself, the head of the judiciary and a member of the powerful Guardian Council has assumed the duties of supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump said several Iranian officials previously involved in talks with Washington are no longer alive.
“Most of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big hit,” he told Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer. “They should have done it sooner. They could have made a deal. They played too cute.”