Iranian leaders want to talk, Trump says in Atlantic magazine interview

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s new leadership wants to talk to him and that he has agreed, according to an interview with Atlantic magazine.

“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Trump said in an interview from his Florida residence, the magazine reported.

Trump did not specify who he would be speaking with or say whether it would occur on Sunday or Monday.

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardians Council had temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump said some of the people who were involved in recent talks with the U.S. are no longer alive.

“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,” he was quoted as saying in the interview with Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer. “They should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should’ve done it sooner. They played too cute.”