U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he believes Iran is looking to strike a deal to avoid military confrontation, revealing he has set Tehran a private deadline as American naval forces move toward the region.
"I can say this, they do want to make a deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Asked if he had given a deadline, Trump said, "yeah, I have," but said that "only they know for sure" what it was.
"We have a large Armada, flotilla ... heading toward Iran right now, even larger than what we had in Venezuela," Trump said at the White House.
He reiterated that the U.S. is now sending "actually, a larger number of ships" to Iran.
"Hopefully, we'll make a deal. If we do make a deal, that's good. If we don't make a deal. We'll see what happens," he said, adding that Iran wants to make a deal.
Asked if he has given Iran any kind of deadline to make a deal, Trump said: "Only, they know for sure."
He said he communicated with them. "They were going to hang 837 people. And I told them, 'if you do it, you're going to pay a price like nobody's ever paid before.' And they pulled back. I appreciated that ...So we'll see what happens. I can say this, they do want to make a deal," he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday that diplomatic efforts with the U.S. can only succeed if Washington abandons threats and war-provoking actions in the region, stressing that dialogue requires goodwill and mutual trust.
Iranian officials have warned that any U.S. attack would draw a "swift and comprehensive" response, while reiterating that Tehran remains open to talks only under what it describes as "fair, balanced and noncoercive terms."
