Trump now says Iran's government is 'seriously fractured’ after previously praising new leaders
President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed the Iranian regime was "seriously fractured" as part of his pretext for indefinitely extending the ceasefire with Iran a day before the previous one was set to expire.
"Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal," Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday afternoon in which he announced he was prolonging the current ceasefire for an indeterminate period of time.
Before that, however, Trump repeatedly telegraphed as recently as Tuesday that the U.S. was negotiating with "rational" and "reasonable" individuals in Tehran's government after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed several of Iran's senior leaders.
In the preceding days and weeks, the president praised what he portrayed as a new Iranian regime as a better negotiating partner than that which existed prior to the war.
Even in the hours before his post on Tuesday, Trump said in an interview with CNBC that the leaders now in charge of Iran were "much more rational."
"It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going to do, but I've done it," Trump said.
It's a sentiment that the president has repeatedly conveyed.
"Now it's a new regime, OK, and we find them pretty reasonable, to be honest with you, by comparison pretty reasonable. It really is a new regime, and I think we're doing very well," Trump said in an interview on Fox News on April 15. "We have had regime change, because the people we dealt with yesterday were, frankly, very smart, very sharp, very good, very good."
He followed up those remarks the next day, telling reporters as he departed the White House that Iran has "a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable."
In a phone call on April 17 with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said he believed he could trust the Iranians and that this will all be resolved "very soon."
On April 7 as Trump's deadline for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz approached, he threatened "A whole civilization will die tonight," but said "now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS." Hours later, he extended the deadline for another two weeks.
But since then, tensions have continued in the Strait of Hormuz and an effort to restart peace talks in Islamabad this week fell apart.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Wednesday that Tehran would return to the negotiating table when "necessary and logical grounds" are met, according to Iranian state television.
"Diplomacy is a tool for securing national interests and security, and whenever we reach the conclusion that the necessary and logical grounds for using this tool to realize national interests and consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies from achieving their sinister goals, we will take action," Baghaei said.
Asked Wednesday by the New York Post in a text message if talks with Iran could resume by Friday as its sources were telling it, Trump replied, "It’s possible! President DJT."
At the same time, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who Trump had said was "much more reasonable" than the previous regime, said a ceasefire is only valid "if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted."
Ghalibaf said opening the Strait of Hormuz is "impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire."
"They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation."
ABC News' Desiree Adib contributed to this report.
