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Trump says he doesn’t care if Iran will negotiate with US

According to him, what is really important is that Iran has no nuclear weapons and there is no violence against the protesters in the country

© AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

WASHINGTON, January 13. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump said that he doesn’t care whether Tehran will negotiate with Washington. He wrote the corresponding message on Twitter on Sunday.

According to him what is really important is that Iran has no nuclear weapons and there is no violence against the protesters in the country.

"National Security Adviser suggested today that sanctions and 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," he tweeted.

Earlier, US national security advisor Robert O’Brien said chances that Tehran would negotiate with Washington are higher after the death of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In turn, Pentagon Chief, Mark Esper, said on Sunday that the US is ready for negotiations with the Iranian authorities without preconditions, despite the support of the protesters in that country from Washington.

Trump previously called on the Iranian leadership not to use violence against protesters, as well as allowing human rights organizations to monitor protests in the country. He expressed support for their participants.

Reuters news agency reported earlier that anti-government rallies began on Saturday in several Iranian cities, including Tehran, in the wake of the Iranian Air Force admitting that a Ukrainian passenger plane had been downed by an Iranian missile.

Tensions in the Middle East escalated following a US drone strike near Baghdad's airport on January 3, which killed General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. In the early hours of January 8, Iran carried out missile strikes on Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad air base and a facility in Erbil, which house US troops, in retaliation for the attack.

On January 8, Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737 travelling from Tehran to Kiev crashed near the Iranian capital shortly after takeoff from the Imam Khomeini International Airport. All people onboard, 167 passengers and 9 crewmembers, were killed. Most victims were Canadian and Iranian citizens. On Saturday, Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff released a statement admitting the plane had been mistakenly shot down. According to Iranian Brigadier-General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, the plane was misidentified as a cruise missile by the air defense force.

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