Donald Trump says he'll 'talk to Iran'; claims US sunk nine Iranian ships, struck navy HQ

Referring to Iranian officials who have participated in intermittent negotiations with the US and other Western governments over the years, Trump said “most of those people are gone.”

US President Donald Trump, on Sunday, stated that he would "be talking" to Iranian leaders, though he remained non-committal about when such discussions might occur and remarked that much of Iran’s leadership had been eliminated.

Trump also claimed that US military strikes had sunk nine Iranian naval vessels and severely damaged Iran’s naval command infrastructure.

“I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“We are going after the rest -- They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters. Other than that, their Navy is doing very well!”

Earlier, Trump was quoted by The Atlantic as saying, “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner,” as US and Israeli forces continued military operations against Iran for a second consecutive day.

When asked about the possible timing of any talks, Trump responded, “I can’t tell you.”

He did not specify who he expected to engage with in potential discussions.

Referring to Iranian officials who have participated in intermittent negotiations with the US and other Western governments over the years, Trump said “most of those people are gone.”

“Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big -- that was a big hit,” Trump was quoted as saying, apparently referring to the strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top officials.

“They should have done it sooner,” he said. “They could have made a deal. They should’ve done it sooner. They played too cute.”

In a separate interview, Trump on Sunday said that 48 Iranian leaders had already been killed in the war launched Saturday by the United States and Israel.

“Nobody can believe the success we're having; 48 leaders are gone in one shot. And it's moving along rapidly,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview by Fox News.

(With AFP inputs)