US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would be “honored” to meet Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei if a deal is reached between the two countries, in his clearest signal yet that direct head-of-state contact is on the table once a nuclear framework is in place.
“I don’t want to meet, but if I did meet, I’d be honored to meet him,” Trump said when asked about a possible sit-down with the Iranian leader, whose father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran. “I’d like to see if we make a deal, but if we make a deal, it’s possible that I would meet him,” he added, Ada Derana reported, citing Anadolu Agency.
Asked whether such a meeting would take place in the United States, Trump said he “hadn’t really heard too much about it” and “didn’t suggest it, but some people have suggested it.” On whether he would resume military action if Iran killed US troops in the region, he replied: “It would be a good reason. I’d be honest with you, if they killed US troops, I think I would do that very quickly.”
Trump said the core of any potential deal would require Tehran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. “As far as Iran’s concerned, you’re going to find out what the deal is, but the main parts of the deal is they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said. The framing extends the no-nuclear-weapon condition Trump first raised in the May 28 Truth Social outline that re-set the US position and the Situation Room conditions floated on May 29-30.
On reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said the strait “will open immediately, you know, it’s going to open immediately, and we’ve largely swept for mines,” citing advanced US underwater minesweeping capability. The Hormuz closure has been the dominant fuel-supply pressure on Sri Lanka, after Iran suspended its US nuclear talks and closed the strait on June 1.
Trump’s comments come as Washington and Tehran continue efforts to convert a fragile ceasefire into a broader agreement. The war began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Iranian authorities say more than 3,000 people have been killed since the conflict started, while at least 13 US service members have been killed in Iranian retaliatory attacks, according to official figures. A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation but subsequent talks in Islamabad failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Source: Ada Derana (citing Anadolu Agency).
