Donald Trump Tweets That He ‘Couldn’t Care Less’ If Iran Wishes To Negotiate With The United States
As angry Iranians continue to protest in the streets of Tehran, Iran, President Donald Trump on Sunday indicated in a tweet that though Iran could be closer to the negotiating table, he “couldn’t care less” if they want to negotiate or not.
According to The Hill, the tweet came on the heels of his national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, claiming during a segment on Fox News that because of the increased level of U.S. sanctions, Iran seemed to be closer to the negotiating table, presumably on the subject of nuclear weapons.
“I think the maximum pressure campaign is working,” O’Brien said.
“Iran is being choked off, and Iran is going to have no other choice but to come to the table.”
Trump’s response to the idea that Iran might be more willing to negotiate in the face of increased sanctions also included a call for the country to not commit violence against its protesters.
“National Security Adviser suggested today that sanctions & protests have Iran ‘choked off’, will force them to negotiate. Actually, I couldn’t care less if they negotiate. Will be totally up to them but, no nuclear weapons and ‘don’t kill your protesters,'” Trump tweeted.
Later in the day, Trump repeated the tweet, but in Persian — Iran’s predominant language, which marked the second Persian tweet the president made in as many days.
It was also another warning from the president to the leaders of Iran to refrain from harming thousands of protesters who’ve taken to the streets of the country’s capital city in the wake of the downing of a Ukrainian Boeing 737 by an Iranian missile. All 176 of its passengers and crew were killed in the incident.
The downing of the Ukraine-bound jet came just hours after Iran launched a series of ballistic missiles at Al Asad airbase in Iraq — a base which houses U.S. troops, in an apparent retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that resulted in the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Another video shows Iranians tearing down #Soleimani poster. You know why?
78 people killed in an stampede in his funeral, 178 people killed in exacting his revenge by downing #UkrainianPlane & 1500 killed by IRGC in #IranProtests . People are furious when you call him a hero. pic.twitter.com/2COgVHpsNV— Masih Alinejad ?? (@AlinejadMasih) January 12, 2020
Iran first denied that they were responsible for shooting down the airliner, but after evidence to the contrary began to surface, they finally admitted that they accidentally shot it down due to a communications error with the missile system.
Protesters, a vast majority of which appear to be students, stormed through the streets in Tehran over the weekend, shouting chants of “death to liars” and “death to the dictator” in response to Iran’s initial cover-up of the attack on the plane.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the situation apparently escalated as a pro-regime gunman reportedly opened fire on a number of protesters, in addition to them being hit with water cannons and tear gas by law enforcement.
