Trump Says Iran Wants to Negotiate as Protests Intensify

U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that Iran wants to negotiate with the US after he threatened to strike the nation amid its crackdown on protesters nationwide, which has led to over 600 deaths.

"Iran wants to negotiate, yes. We might meet with them," President Trump said. "But we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting."

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, addressing foreign diplomats in Tehran, argued that “the situation has come under total control” while blaming Israel and the U.S. for the violence.

“That’s why the demonstrations turned violent and bloody to give an excuse to the American president to intervene,” Araghchi expressed, when speaking to the Qatar-backed network, Al Jazeera. Despite an internet blackout imposed by the regime, the network has had the chance to report live while inside Iran.

Most recently, Araghchi stated that Iran, which has threatened to retaliate against both Israel and American forces in the region if the U.S. were to attack, announced that Iran was “open to diplomacy. Esmail Baghaei, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, on Monday said a channel remained open with the United States. "Through that channel, the necessary messages are exchanged," he said.

Baghaei affirmed that talks within the open channel needed to be “based on the acceptance of mutual interests and concerns, not a negotiation that is one-sided, unilateral, and based on dictation.”

The protests began as a response to the collapse of the Iranian Rial, the nation’s currency. Before its fall, the country was already suffering from international economic sanctions, and the collapse led to calls to overthrow Iran’s current regime.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRNA) reported that over the past two weeks, about 580 protests took place in more than 185 cities.

As tensions increase, Iranian state television has begun broadcasting cries from crowds who flooded the streets on Monday in support of the Iranian regime. Supporters chanted “Death to America!”, “Death to Israel!”, and “Death to the enemies of God!”