WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is involved in negotiations for a deal to end the warto end the war and that he would “like to meet him”.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since the Iran war began, and has only addressed the nation through written statements read out by television anchors.
US officials have claimed Khamenei was incapacitated or undergoing treatment for severe injuries sustained in the same bombing that killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.
“He’s involved. Absolutely,” the US president told the New York Post. “Yeah, I think they have a lot of respect for him.”
When asked about Khamenei’s condition, Trump said: “I don’t know, I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him.”
He added: “If you believe the stories he is, you know, missing a lot of different parts.”
Trump was asked whether he would meet with Khamenei, he replied: “Yeah, I’d like to meet him. I’d like to meet everybody … We probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday Khamenei is alive and increasingly active.
“I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The US president said Iran has already agreed to not have a nuclear weapon, arguing “that was a big thing.”
“We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon … they’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and they can change their mind, but that was one of the things they had to agree to have agreed to, and that was the big thing,” he said.
The US and Israel said Iran’s nuclear program and “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime” were the key reasons to launch the war on Feb. 28. The conflict is currently on a halt and efforts for a permanent end continue under Pakistan’s mediation.
Trump said talks with Iran are “rapidly evolving, and it’s evolving good. It’s going to be very good,” adding that “lots of really good things are going to happen.”
Source: Saudi Gazette