President Donald Trump said Sunday he would “be talking” to Iranian leaders but did not say and noted much of the country’s leadership was dead, as U.S. and Israeli military strikes against Iran entered a second day.
"They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner," Trump was quoted as saying by The Atlantic, as U.S. and Israeli forces press a war against Iran for a second day.
Asked when such talks might take place, Trump said "I can't tell you."
Trump did not indicate with whom he hoped to speak.
Referring to the Iranian leadership which has been in years of on-and-off talks with U.S. and other Western governments, Trump said "most of those people are gone."
"Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big -- that was a big hit," Trump was quoted as saying, apparently referring to the strike that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.
"They should have done it sooner," he said. "They could have made a deal. They should've done it sooner. They played too cute."
In a separate interview, Trump on Sunday said that 48 Iranian leaders had already been killed in the war launched Saturday by the United States and Israel.
"Nobody can believe the success we're having, 48 leaders are gone in one shot. And it's moving along rapidly," Trump was quoted as saying in an interview by Fox News.
Speaking to CNBC, Trump said military operations were "ahead of schedule."
On concerns about oil prices and potential disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping lane, he was dismissive. "I'm not concerned about anything," he said. "I just do what's right. At the end, it works out," he told Fox News. "This could have been a huge price increase with respect to oil, if things went wrong," he told The Atlantic.
The U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Saturday, killing several top officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran retaliated with drone and missile strikes that hit several Gulf countries.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Gulf countries. Three US service members have been killed and five seriously wounded since operations began, U.S. Central Command said.
Israel and the U.S. launched a similar attack on Iran last June, triggering a 12-day war before a ceasefire was announced.
