President Donald Trump speaks with reporters during the swearing in ceremony for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo)
US President Donald Trump Tuesday said that Iran gave them a present “worth a tremendous amount of money” that showed they are “dealing with the right people”. “I’m not going to tell you what the present is. but it was a very significant prize… It wasn’t nuclear-related, it was oil and gas related…” Trump said.
Reiterating that the US is into negotiations, Trump said: “Iran would like to make a deal, and who wouldn’t if you were there? Look their Navy is gone, their air force is gone, their communication is gone… Pretty much everything they have is gone… most of their missiles are gone… Pretty much everything they have is gone.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: Iran is going to make a deal. The new leadership gave us a significant present that showed me that we’re dealing with the right people. pic.twitter.com/abJ0TbdQpq
Trump also said if Iran had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it. “… and If I didn’t end the horrible Barrack Hussein Obama-Iran nuclear deal in my first administration, they would’ve had a nuclear weapon three or four years ago. They would’ve used it.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re in negotiations right now. Iran would like to make a deal, and who wouldn’t if you were there? Pretty much everything they have is gone. pic.twitter.com/KfbKffQFtq
After Trump’s repeated claims that Iran is keen on striking a deal with the US, an Iranian military spokesperson Wednesday mocked the United States, insisting that the Americans were “only negotiating with themselves”. In a prerecorded video aired on state television, Lt Col Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson for the Iranian military’s Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, stated. “The strategic power you used to talk about has turned into a strategic failure,” news agency AP quoted him as saying.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: I’m involved in the Iran negotiations. You’re talking about saving millions of lives. pic.twitter.com/o324b1UIVZ
“The one claiming to be a global superpower would have already gotten out of this mess if it could. Don’t dress up your defeat as an agreement. Your era of empty promises has come to an end… Have your internal conflicts reached the point where you are negotiating with yourselves?”Zolfaghari asked. His statement came soon after reports suggested that Trump administration sent a 15-point peace plan to Iran through Pakistan.
“Our first and last word has been the same from day one, and it will stay that way: Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever, he added.”
On Monday, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf Monday dismissed the reports of any ongoing negotiations as “fake news“.
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