00:00I think it's pretty clear right now. President Trump is willing to talk to and meet with and engage with anyone in the world.
00:07I mean, we don't view meetings as a concession. We don't view meetings as even legitimization.
00:14It is our willingness to sit and listen and talk to anyone, any adversary, any ally, obviously, but anyone around the world.
00:22And so the president's always been open to that. He showed that in the first administration and he's showing it again now.
00:27And so I think if there's an opportunity to engage directly with counterparts in the Iranian regime, the United States would be open to that.
00:36And that's what we're open to. We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to.
00:41In Turkey, it was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it.
00:46I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that.
00:51So that's still being worked through. At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage and has always been prepared to engage with Iran.
00:57As far as the topic of those discussions and what the agenda needs to be, look, I think in order for talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things.
01:07And that includes the range of their ballistic missiles. That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region.
01:13That includes the nuclear program. And that includes the treatment of their own people.
01:16As far as the president's views on the way protesters were treated, it was very clear about it.
01:22And as you saw, part of what the president said publicly prevented mass executions that were being planned and were on the precipice of.
01:33And obviously, beyond that, the president retains a number of options to how he responds to that and future events.
01:39But as far as the talks are concerned, you know, I think the Iranians had agreed to a certain format.
01:44For whatever reason, it's changed in their system or what have you. We'll see if we can get back to the right place.
01:49But the United States is prepared to meet with them. I think it was scheduled for Friday.
01:52Steve is ready to go. He'll be prepared for that.
01:54If the Iranians want to meet, we're ready.
01:56They've expressed an interest in meeting and talking.
01:58If they change their mind, we're fine with that, too.
02:00We prefer to meet and talk. I'm not sure you can reach a deal with these guys, but we're going to try to find out.
02:05We don't see there's any harm in trying to figure out there's something that can be done.
02:08This is a president that always prefers a peaceful outcome to any conflict or any challenge.
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