Iran president orders talks as Washington hopeful of deal

WASHINGTON — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the start of nuclear talks with the United States, local media said on Monday, after US President Donald Trump said he was hopeful of a deal to avert military action against the Islamic republic.

Amid Iran's ongoing unrest and surging tensions between Tehran and Washington, Trump has threatened military action and ordered the dispatch of an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East.

While piling pressure on Iran, Trump has maintained he is hopeful of making a deal and Tehran has also insisted it wants diplomacy while vowing an unbridled response to any aggression.

"President Pezeshkian has ordered the opening of talks with the United States," the news agency Fars reported on Monday, citing an unnamed government source.

"Iran and the United States will hold talks on the nuclear file," Fars said, without specifying a date.

Iran said earlier on Monday it was working on a method and framework for negotiations that would be ready in the coming days, with messages between the two sides relayed through regional players.

Trump said on Sunday that if Tehran fails to strike a nuclear deal with Washington, "we will find out" whether Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was right to warn that a US attack could ignite a regional war.

Khamenei said at a meeting in Tehran earlier on Sunday that if the United States starts a war against Iran, it will be a "regional war".

"Of course, he would say that," Trump said when asked by a reporter about Khamenei's remarks.

"But we have the biggest, most powerful ships in the world over there, very close, couple of days, and hopefully we'll make a deal," he said.

"We don't make a deal, then we'll find out whether or not he (Khamenei) was right," he added.

Turkiye, Egypt and Qatar are arranging a meeting in Ankara later this week between Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior Iranian officials, US online media outlet Axios reported on Sunday.

Trump has not yet made a final decision on launching military strikes against Iran, said the report, citing anonymous White House officials.

Khamenei said on Sunday that Iran would not start a war and does not seek to attack any country, "but Iranian people will deliver a hard punch to those seeking to attack and harass them".

In another development, the speaker of Iran's parliament said that the Islamic republic now considers all European Union militaries to be "terrorist groups", lashing out after the bloc declared the country's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a "terror group" for taking part in the bloody crackdown.

Iran has used a 2019 law to reciprocally declare other nations' militaries terror groups following the US declaration of the Guard a terror group that year.

Xinhua - Agencies