WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Iran has agreed not to pursue nuclear weapons and indicated that he could meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, if ongoing negotiations progress positively.
“They’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon,” in an interview on the ‘Pod Force One’ podcast on Wednesday.
Asked about Khamenei’s involvement in talks with the US on ending hostilities, Trump said, “He’s involved, absolutely. … I think they have a lot of respect for him.”
“Iran has no navy. They have no air force. They have very few soldiers. They have no leadership, no leadership,” he said.
“Their economy is crashing. They have 250% inflation. They have everything that you can have that’s bad.”
.@POTUS: “Iran has no navy, they have no air force, they have very few soldiers. They have no leadership… their economy is crashing, they have 250% inflation… and then, if you read The New York Times, you’d think they’re doing fantastically, it’s amazing.” pic.twitter.com/Q01yVp0nxO
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 3, 2026
Commenting on the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said he did not expect the disruption to persist for much longer. “I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” he said, adding the US is having “a very great success in Iran militarily”.
“I think we’re going to be in very good shape. We’re in good shape right now,” says @POTUS on Iran.
“I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly.” pic.twitter.com/qgyHTr3c6E
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 3, 2026
Trump said he had received reports suggesting that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was not in good health but remained actively involved in the negotiations by providing his approval. He also noted that he had not yet had “the privilege of meeting” Khamenei.
“I’d like to meet him. We probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out,” Trump said.
The US president said he viewed the Iran war as a success because the country’s military had been defeated.
“Iran’s a big success,” Trump said in the interview. “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to, we’re working on a deal, and that happens fine. If it doesn’t happen, that’s OK too. We’ll do it the other way.”
Trump also said he was “perturbed” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance of “constantly fighting” with Lebanon.
Commenting on Axios reports of a heated phone call with Netanyahu on Monday, Trump said he told the Israeli premier that “at some point … Bibi we gotta stop this.”
“I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon,” he said, but added that the two have a “very good relationship.”
The US president said his concern over Iran’s nuclear programme dated back to his first term when he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under the administration of President Barack Obama.
“Now that pertains Israel, because they probably would have been the first one to get hit, there would be no Israel … If there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel right now,” he said.
“It’s good if they’re confused, and the Iranians are confused,” Trump said during the interview.
“But no, it’s just the way I am. It changes. I could leave here, I could give you an answer, and then in 20 minutes go into the Oval Office and I’ll realise my answer is now incorrect. Facts change and things change quickly.”
The US president described the war on Iran as a deliberate choice he could not delay.
“I couldn’t, I know because this is too important. If I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon. They would have had a nuclear weapon two weeks after the B-2 bomber struck. So if I did that, they would have had a nuclear weapon.”
Earlier a drone strike on a passenger terminal in Kuwait’s international airport wounded several people and forced air traffic to be suspended, as Iranian and US forces traded attacks in the Gulf.
The attacks marked one of the more severe tests yet of April 8 ceasefire, which has largely held despite sporadic strikes after more than a month of war sparked by the US and Israeli attack on Iran.
Kuwaiti officials blamed the attack on the airport on Iran, whose Revolutionary Guards accused US forces of triggering the night’s sequence of attacks by targeting a communications tower on the country’s Qeshm Island, forcing it to respond.
