An aide to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday the United States should return to a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers to pave the way for talks with Iran.
Advisor to Rouhani, Hamid Aboutalebi, tweeted: “Respecting the Iranian nation’s rights, reducing hostilities and returning to the nuclear deal are steps that can be taken to pave the bumpy road of talks between Iran and America.”
Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet Iran’s leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, saying, “If they want to meet, we’ll meet”.
If the meeting took place it would be the first such meeting between US and Iranian leaders since before the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Trump’s abrupt change in tone is similar to the run-up to his meeting with North Korean Kim Jong-un.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said if Iran showed it was willing to change its behaviour he would support a meeting .
Tensions between the US and the Islamic Republic have been steadily escalating since the US pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – known as the Iran nuclear deal.
The deal curbed Iran’s nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions.
Trump justified the exist by claiming Iran is building a nuclear programme, but did not provide evidence this was true.
He said: “At the heart of the deal was a giant fiction.”
Trump and President Hassan Rouhani traded barbs and hostile warnings over trade and recently the US President hinted at military action against Iran.
Mr Trump tweeted in capitals that Iran would “suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before” if it threatened the US.
Mr Rouhani told Iranian diplomats: “America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars.”
The firebrand Republican said he would consider military action to keep open key oil shipping routes in the Middle East.
His administration claimed that in the wake of attacks on Saudi oil tankers by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on July 25, military options may be inevitable.
However, officials said military action would be taken by US allies such as Saudi Arabia, rather than American troops.