‘Could be soon’: Donald Trump Signals Imminent Iran Deal

US President Donald Trump on Sunday (US time) expressed optimism about a potential deal with Iran, citing what he described as "very good negotiations" and Tehran allowing 20 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a "sign of respect".

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Trump said, "I do see a deal in Iran, yeah. Could be soon."

“And they've destroyed a lot of additional targets today. The Navy's gone, the Air Force's gone, we know that. We've destroyed many, many targets today. It was a big day. And we are negotiating with them directly and indirectly," he said further.

Trump also pointed to developments in the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting they reflected progress in talks.

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"We have emissaries, but we are also dealing directly, and as you know, they've agreed to send 8 boats two days ago, and then they added another two, so it was 10 boats,” Trump said.

“And now today, they gave us, as a tribute, I don't know, I can't define it exactly, but they gave us, I think, out of a sign of respect, 20 boats of oil, big, big boats of oil going through the Hormuz Strait,” he added.

“And that's taking place starting tomorrow morning over the next couple of days, a lot of boats. And I would only say that we're doing extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up, whether it's the B-2 bombers or just terminating, as an example, the Iran nuclear deal done by Barack Hussein Obama, probably the worst deal we've ever done as a country, one of the dumbest deals we've ever done. But I terminated it, fortunately, otherwise right now they'd have a nuclear weapon," he added.

Trump reiterated his criticism of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 agreement negotiated under former US President Barack Obama.

The deal, finalised in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran, the P5+1 nations and the European Union, was designed to limit Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, a framework Trump dismantled in favour of a new arrangement.

Alongside his comments on negotiations, Trump asserted that Iran has already undergone a form of regime change following recent military actions and leadership losses.

Referring to the evolving power structure in Tehran, he said, "I think we'll make a deal with them. Pretty sure. But it's possible we won't. But we've had regime change if you look already because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. They're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead."

"And the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change. And frankly, they've been very reasonable. So I think we've had regime change," he added.

(With inputs from ANI)