US President Donald Trump said that the Iranian leadership is only alive to negotiate, and that they have no negotiating power aside from their control over the Strait of Hormuz, in a post on Truth Social shared on Friday.
"The Iranians don’t seem to realize they have no cards, other than a short-term extortion of the world by using international waterways. The only reason they are alive today is to negotiate!" Trump shared in a social media statement.
Trump also attacked Iran's use of "fake news," writing in a separate post that "the Iranians are better at handling the Fake News Media, and 'Public Relations,' than they are at fighting!"
Trump says US 'loading ships with best munitions' in case talks collapse
Earlier on Friday, the US President told The New York Post that American warships were "being loaded with the best ammunition in case talks in Pakistan failed."
"We’re going to find out in about 24 hours. We’re going to know soon,” Trump told the newspaper in a phone interview.
“We have a reset going. We’re loading up the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever made, even better than what we did previously, and we blew them apart,” he added.
He also said that the weapons used in case of a failure in the negotiations were "even at a higher level" than those used until now.
Finally, he accused the regime of deceiving the US during the previous rounds of negotiations. “To our face, they’re getting rid of all nuclear weapons, everything’s gone. And then they go out to the press and say, ‘No, we’d like to enrich.’ So we’ll find out,” he explained.
Vance expects Iran talks to be positive, Sharif calls them 'make or break'
US Vice President JD Vance spoke with the media on Friday before departing for Islamabad, Pakistan, to attend talks between the US and Iran.
He told reporters in Washington he expected the talks to be positive and looked forward to the negotiations, Reuters reported.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said later on Friday that the US-Iran talks in Islamabad, slated to begin on Saturday, were a make-or-break to achieve a permanent ceasefire in the weeks-long Middle East conflict.