Speaking overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, US President Donald Trump addressed reports about the planned talks with Iran, which are due to be held in Oman, even after earlier indications that they had been canceled. Following the crisis between the sides and at the urging of US allies, the American news outlet Axios reported that the talks would go ahead on Friday at 10:00 a.m. in Muscat, the Omani capital.
A US official told Axios that several Arab and Muslim leaders were involved in pushing for the meeting. "They asked us to hold the meeting and listen to what the Iranians have to say," the official said.
In the interview, Trump said Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be "very worried." According to Trump, Tehran is indeed conducting talks. "I would say he should be very worried, yes. He should be. As you know, they are negotiating with us," Trump said.
Responding to claims by protesters who said the US had abandoned them, Trump said, "We were with them. And look, that country is a mess right now because of us. We went in. We wiped out their nuclear program."
Trump argued that the US action changed the regional balance of power. "We have peace in the Middle East. If I hadn't wiped out their nuclear program, if we hadn't wiped out that nuclear program, we would not have peace in the Middle East, because the Arab countries would never have been able to do it. They were very afraid of Iran. They're not afraid of Iran anymore."
He said the strike was carried out using B-2 bombers. "We wiped it out with these beautiful bombers, B-2. One is actually right there. The B-2 bombers went in, and they hit their target. Every single bomb hit, and it completely destroyed it," he said.
Trump added that Iran had been close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. "They were going to get a nuclear weapon within one month. Within one month, they were going to get a nuclear weapon. It was a big threat. They're not going to get it anymore."
He also claimed Iran had tried to return to the site that was attacked. "They tried to go back to the site. They couldn't even get near it. It was total obliteration," Trump said. According to him, Tehran even considered building a new site elsewhere in the country. "But they thought about building a new site in another part of the country. We found out about it. I said, if you do that, we're going to do very bad things to you."
In the interview, Trump also addressed domestic politics and the future of the Republican Party. "I'll probably support a candidate for president. I don't want to start a fight. JD is fantastic and Rubio is fantastic. They're both very intelligent, but one is more diplomatic than the other. They'll make plans and do what needs to be done. There's a difference in style, but they're both very capable. The combination of Vance and Rubio would be very hard to beat," he said.
