US media: Trump says he has "in-depth talks" with Iran and was once close to holding direct negotiations

ME News report: On April 6 (UTC+8), U.S. President Trump said in a phone interview that the United States is engaged in “intensive negotiations” with Iran and is likely to reach an agreement before the Tuesday deadline. “There is a good chance of reaching an agreement, but if they don’t, I will destroy everything there,” he said. When asked whether he was worried about harming innocent civilians, Trump said he believed that Iranian people who oppose their own government would support such strikes to weaken the regime.

During the roughly 8-minute phone interview, Trump said that his special envoys, Witkoff and Kushner, are conducting intensive negotiations with Iran. Two sources involved in the negotiations said that communication takes place both through intermediaries such as Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, and through text exchanges between Trump’s advisers and Iran’s Foreign Minister Araghchi. “The negotiations are going smoothly, but dealing with Iranians is always difficult to get to the finish line,” Trump said. He also said that a few days earlier, the two sides had once been close to reaching an agreement to hold direct talks. “But they said they would meet again in five days. I asked, why five days? I think they aren’t serious enough. So I attacked that bridge,” Trump said. (Source: PANews)