Iran, US Peace Talks Still Stuck In Mud, Trump Says

President Donald Trump admitted during a Friday press gaggle that negotiations with Iran were not going well.

Trump cancelled a planned April 25 trip for Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, saying the trip would not be worth the effort. Trump was asked about the progress of negotiations during a question-and-answer session with reporters as he was walking to Marine One.

“Now we’ve been dealing with Iran. They want to make a deal, they’re not there, they’re not,” Trump said. “They’re, they’re sort of, they, they get close and then a new group of people come in. They don’t know who their leaders are. They have no idea who their leaders are, but they’re very confused and that’s because of the success we’ve had militarily.”

“Right now, we have negotiations going on. They’re not getting there. They are very disjointed. They’re extremely disjointed,” Trump added later. “They’re not able to get along with each other as leaders, they don’t know who the leader is. Their military’s been defeated. If we left right now it would take them 20 years to build back that country. But we’re not satisfied at this moment.”

Later in the gaggle, a reporter asked Trump what he meant when he said he was “not satisfied.”

“They’re asking for things that I can’t agree to.”

Trump imposed a blockade of Iran on April 12 after Iran imposed a toll on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran declared it would allow passage of 12 ships per day that paid a $1 per barrel toll in either Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency April 9, announcing that it had laid mines.

On April 21, Trump said the blockade and ceasefire would continue as the expiration of the latter neared.

Trump administration officials asserted that Iran posed a threat to the United States, but have not gone into specific details. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. launched strikes because American casualties could have occurred due to an Iranian response to Israel’s planned attack.

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent resigned in March over the conflict, stating that the war began “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

The New York Times reported on April 7 that despite skepticism from Vice President J.D. Vance and other officials, Trump was convinced to launch strikes against Iran by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Netanyahu’s Feb. 11 visit to the White House.