Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei rejects Pres. Trump's offer to talk. 'I do not consider Trump as a person worth exchanging any message with,' Khamenei reportedly said.
Amid renewed high tensions in the Persian Gulf, Iran's Supreme Leader says he has rejected an offer from President Donald Trump to talk, blasting the U.S. as insincere in its offer and untrustworthy.
While I very much appreciate P.M. Abe going to Iran to meet with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, I personally feel that it is too soon to even think about making a deal. They are not ready, and neither are we! The public rejection of talks with the U.S. came as two oil tankers were reportedly attacked in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. One ship reportedly was on fire, and the other suffered damage. Twenty-one mariners from one of the ships were taken aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer after having abandoned ship, while 23 mariners from the other vessel were reportedly taken to Iran.
Last month, the U.S. accelerated the deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East and set B-52 bombers in what the Trump administration called an act of deterrence amid heightened threats from Iran and its proxies to U.S. personnel in Iraq, Syria, and on the high seas. Iran denied threatening U.S. personnel, in turn accusing the U.S. of ratcheting up tension with its military deployments.
"We do not doubt your sincerity and goodwill. However, regarding what you mentioned about the President of the U.S., I do not consider Trump as a person worth exchanging any message with and I have no answer for him, nor will I respond to him in the future," Khamenei reportedly said in response.
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