Pompeo Says U.S. Ready to Talk to Iran Without Preconditions
- Secretary of state comments as U.S. forces simulate strike
- Iran says remarks are “wordplay” and U.S. policy is wrong
Mike Pompeo attends a press conference in Bellinzona, Switzerland, June 2.
Photographer: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration would be ready to negotiate with Iran without preconditions, even as an American fighter bomber and aircraft carrier practiced strike operations in the Arabian Sea.
Pompeo was responding to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s expression of willingness to negotiate with the U.S. as long as his country wasn’t bullied into doing so. But an Iranian military official warned on Sunday that all U.S. military forces in the Gulf were within range of his country’s missiles, and Iran’s foreign minister said talks are “not very likely.”