‘They Want To Make A Deal’: Trump Says Iran Rejects US Terms As 60-Day Talks End

US President Donald Trump said Tehran wants to reach an agreement with Washington but is unwilling to accept the kind of deal he considers necessary, as a 60-day negotiating period between the two sides ended Monday.

“They want to make a deal, but they’re not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump did not provide details on the state of negotiations, but reiterated that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains Washington’s objective.

“You understand that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “It’s very simple. They can’t have a nuclear war.”

Trump claimed that the United States had ‘total control’ over the Strait of Hormuz through its naval blockade of Iranian ports and repeatedly suggested making the strategic waterway a US territory.

“We control it (the strait) with the blockade. And I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” Trump said. “We have total control over the Strait now.”

Asked about his earlier warning to Oman, which has reportedly been working with Iran on a plan to reopen the strait while keeping the waterway under the control of the two countries, Trump said: “I don’t think they behaved very well, but we’d handle them very easily, just like we do others.”

Iran Rejects US Backchannel Claim

The remarks came as the 60-day ceasefire between the US and Iran expired, with both sides maintaining their positions on Iran’s nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) rejected Trump’s claim that a backchannel for talks exists between Washington and the IRGC.

IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi described the claim as a ‘delusion’ in an interview with semi-official Tasnim news agency and said no dialogue was taking place between IRGC officials and the US. He added that Iran’s diplomatic apparatus was not currently negotiating with Washington because of what he described as a breach of promises by the US.

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