Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listed specific conditions for President Trump to meet with Iranian leaders, hours after Trump said he would not require any preconditions.
“We’ve said this before,” Pompeo said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Monday. “The president wants to meet with folks to solve problems.”
Pompeo then listed some preconditions for the meeting to take place.
{mosads}“If the Iranians demonstrate a commitment to make fundamental changes in how they treat their own people, reduce their malign behavior, can agree that it’s worthwhile to enter into a nuclear agreement that actually prevents proliferation, then the president said he’s prepared to sit down and have the conversation with them,” Pompeo said.
His remarks came just hours after Trump held a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, declaring in front of reporters that he would meet with Tehran with “no preconditions.”
“It’s good for the country, good for them, good for us and good for the world. No preconditions. If they want to meet, I’ll meet,” Trump said.
The president added that he wasn’t sure “if they’re ready yet.”
“I do believe that they will probably end up wanting to meet,” Trump said. “And I’m ready to meet any time they want to. And I don’t do that from strength or from weakness. I think it’s an appropriate thing to do.”
CNBC noted that Pompeo in May outlined 12 specific conditions that would needed to be met for the U.S. to hold talks with Iran after Trump decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal.
Pompeo recently went after Iran’s leadership earlier this month, saying they resembled “the mafia more than a government.”
Trump’s willingness to meet with Iran comes roughly a week after after he issued an all-caps warning to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that he would face “consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered” if he threatened the U.S. again.
Rouhani had told Iranian diplomats earlier that day that a war with Iran is “the mother of all wars.”