ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iranian side wants to “desperately meet” with American negotiators to resume talks, US President Donald Trump said Tuesday, warning that the his country’s forces would “absolutely attack” a deeply buried underground nuclear complex Iran is allegedly preparing in central Isfahan province, while reiterating that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
“They [Iranian representatives] want to meet desperately to try and end it [the war] because they're getting decimated,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that “until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in [holding talks].”
Trump's remarks come after Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that indirect diplomatic contacts between Iran and the US had recently resumed.
"We have been informed by mediators, we have received messages [from the American side]," Baghaei said at a weekly briefing, adding that "the diplomatic apparatus has been active in recent days and ideas have been conveyed to us by certain mediators."
Mediators are actively working to "prevent further escalation," the Iranian diplomat added, pointing to proposals that have been conveyed to Tehran in that regard.
Baghaei's remarks followed media reports that Qatar had proposed a 10-day ceasefire between Iran and the US during Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi's visit to Doha on Wednesday, when he traveled to pay tribute to Qatar's former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
The proposal came as Tehran and Washington have been locked in continuous strikes and counterstrikes for around two weeks.
Importantly, Trump on Tuesday said the US would "absolutely attack...the new site that they're talking about" - an indirect reference to Pickaxe Mountain, a deeply buried underground nuclear complex in Isfahan, adjacent to the Natanz nuclear facility, which was targeted by US and Israeli military strikes during the 12-day war in June 2025 and the Iran war earlier this year.
Recent intelligence leaks in Western media allege that Iran may have transferred thousands of advanced centrifuges and enriched uranium stockpiles to Pickaxe Mountain as a fallback.
"We'll hit that site, any site where they're even thinking about nuclear, we'll be hitting it very, very powerfully," Trump said, adding that if the US were to end its strikes on Iran today, "it would take Iran 20 to 25 years to rebuild" the damage done to its nuclear facilities and military capabilities.
"But we're not leaving right now," he noted, reiterating, "They cannot have a nuclear weapon and they won't have.”
Trump's remarks come weeks after Iran and the US signed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding in mid-June, which established a halt to military operations on all fronts and reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.
Washington and Tehran also committed to holding talks toward a comprehensive settlement within 60 days of signing, with room to extend by mutual consent. However, the latest remarks by top American and Iranian officials, as well as the ongoing military escalation, suggest a return to the negotiating table will likely not happen anytime soon.
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