New leaders of Iran 'want to speak' with Washington, says Trump
The death of Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran for almost 37 years before he was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Saturday morning, has thrown his country’s future into doubt and threatened to destabilise the wider region
President Donald Trump has agreed to speak with the new Iranian leadership, but says they should have made a deal sooner.
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Explosions were heard in multiple Gulf states as Iran vowed to carry out its “most intense operation” ever in retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The death of 86-year-old Mr Khamenei, who ruled Iran for almost 37 years before he was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Saturday morning, has thrown his country’s future into doubt and threatened to destabilise the wider region.
Iran has since named the new leadership council in the wake of his death, and they will lead until a new Supreme Leader is named, which may come in the next few days.
Mr Trump told the Atlantic that he has heard from the new leadership council and they "want to talk" with Washington.
“I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them," he said.
"They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long."
Oman's foreign ministry has said that Iran is open to “any serious efforts that contribute to stopping escalation and restoring stability,” following a phone call between the two countries' top diplomats.
Mr Trump couldn't say when these talks with the Iranians would take place, but noted that some of those involved in recent negotiations "are gone".
The latest round of nuclear talks that took place in Geneva on Thursday failed to reach a breakthrough on a deal regarding Iran's nuclear ambitions.
“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,” Mr Trump added.
“They should have done it sooner. They could have made a deal. They should’ve done it sooner. They played too cute."
There have been suggestions that the airstrike campaign led by Israel and the US could continue for weeks.
Senator Tom Cotton, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Mr Trump “has no plan for any kind of large-scale ground force in Iran.”
However, he would not say how the US and Israel knew the location of the Ayatollah.
“We have exquisite intelligence collection methods,” he said. “Israel and the United States once again proved that our nation have capabilities that no other nation on Earth has.”