Reuters
US President Donald Trump said the US and Iran have been meeting “directly and indirectly” and that Iran’s new leaders have been “very reasonable”.
“I think we’ll make a deal with them, I’m pretty sure, but it’s possible we won’t,” Trump told reporters on Sunday evening as he travelled aboard Air Force One to Washington.
Trump said he thought the US had already accomplished regime change in Tehran after strikes killed the country’s supreme leader and other top officials, but said twice that their replacements seemed “reasonable.”
Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, earlier accused the US of sending messages about possible negotiations while at the same time planning a ground invasion. Tehran was ready to respond if US soldiers were deployed, he said.
“As long as the Americans seek Iran’s surrender, our response is that we will never accept humiliation,” he said in a message to the nation.
Israeli strikes
Israel’s military said it had launched over 140 air strikes on central and western Iran, including Tehran, over the 24 hours to Sunday evening, hitting ballistic missile launch sites and storage facilities, among other targets.
Iranian state media reported strikes had hit Mehrabad airport and a petrochemical plant in the northern city of Tabriz.
An Iranian missile or missile debris hit a chemical plant in southern Israel near the city of Beersheba as Israel fended off multiple salvos from Iran, prompting official warnings to the public to stay away due to “hazardous materials”.
More US troops
Several hundred special operations personnel have arrived in the region, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing two military officials.
That comes on top of thousands of US marines that came on Friday aboard an amphibious assault ship, the first of two contingents, the US military has said.
Reuters has reported that the Pentagon has been considering military options that could include ground forces, although Trump has not approved any of those plans, according to multiple news outlets.
