Trump: Iran ‘desperately’ wants to meet, but US isn’t interested until Tehran ready for ‘meaningful’ talks

A reporter asks US President Donald Trump what he plans to do in light of Iran’s continued strikes on American assets in the region, indicating that it is not prepared to end the conflict.

Trump angrily rejects the premise of the question. “You don’t know what the dialogue is behind the scenes,” he says.

“They want to meet desperately to try to end it because they’re getting decimated,” Trump claims of Iran.

But while Iran purportedly wants to meet with the US, Trump asserts the US is not interested “until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way.”

The comments suggest that Iran’s terms for ending the ongoing conflict regarding control over the Strait of Hormuz are too much for the US to accept.

Trump claims the US is “degrading [Iran] at levels that nobody thought was possible,” before acknowledging Tehran’s weekend strike in Jordan that killed two American soldiers.

“They did slip something through in Jordan,” he says before appearing to blame their deaths on foreign operators of US equipment meant to shoot down such strikes.

Trump says he’ll be traveling to Dover, Delaware — where the bodies of the two fallen soldiers are being flown — to pay his respects.