Trump says US and Iranian officials will talk next week as ceasefire holds

US President once again heaps praise on Field Marshal, terming him an ‘Impressive, great man’

Monitoring Desk

THE HAGUE: The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Wednesday while U.S. President Donald Trump asserted that U.S. and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace even as Tehran insisted it will not give up its nuclear program.
Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he wasn’t particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that U.S. strikes had destroyed its nuclear program. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack.
“We may sign an agreement, I don’t know,” Trump said. “The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done.”
Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran had been scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was cancelled when Israel attacked Iran.
Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going “very well,” and added that Iran was “not going to have a bomb and they’re not going to enrich.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday once again heaped praise on Field Marshal AsimMunir, who he recently met at White House, and reiterated his stance that he stopped last month’s conflict between the nuclear-armed Pakistan and India.
Addressing a press conference after attending the annual NATO summit in The Hauge, the US president called the Pakistan-India conflict the “most important” of all the recent ones, saying both countries have nuclear weapons and he ended that with a series of phone calls on trade.
“I said look if you are going to go fighting each other… it was getting very bad… I said if you are going to go fighting each other then we are not going to do trade deals,” Trump said.
Praising Field Marshal Munir, Trump said: “I met General from Pakistan last week in my office — a very impressive personality, a great man.”
He also described Indian Prime Minister NarendraModi as a close friend, stating: “Modi is a great friend of mine. A great gentleman.”
“We got them to reason and I said we are not doing any trade deal if you are going to fight… and you know what they said no I want to do the trade deal and we stopped a nuclear war,” he added.