Washington - US President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that s his administration is “talking to the right people” in Iran, adding that the Islamic Republic “wants to make a deal so badly.”

Iran has denied engaging in talks with the US, and officials familiar with the matter have clarified that what has taken place in recent days has been more of a passing along of messages through mediators.

“We’re in negotiations right now… We have a number of people doing it,” Trump tells reporters in the Oval Office, referring to his negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.

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He reiterates that he was planning to bomb Iran’s main power plant until Tehran purportedly reached out over the weekend, expressing interest in negotiating a deal to end the war.

Trump says he’s demanding in talks that Iran not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon and insists that Tehran has already agreed to that. Iran has long said it’s not pursuing a nuclear weapon, but has been enriching uranium at weapons-grade levels.

Asked if he’d like to see Gulf allies get more involved in the war against Iran, Trump responds, “A little bit, but more NATO.” “I think our Gulf allies have been pretty good,” he adds.

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US President Donald Trump also said that that Iran gave him a “present” worth a “tremendous amount of money” related to the Strait of Hormuz and matters of oil and gas.

Asked by reporters in the Oval Office why he trusts the Iranians, he first insists that he doesn’t trust anyone before revealing, “They did something yesterday that was amazing — they gave us a present… that arrived today.”

“It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money, and I’m not going to tell you what that present is, but it was a very significant prize,” Trump says.

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“They gave it to us, and they said they were going to give it. That meant one thing to me. [That we’re] dealing with the right people… They’re the only ones [who] could have done it.”

“It wasn’t nuclear related, it was oil and gas related,” he adds when pressed to clarify the nature of the gift.

Asked if the gift is related to the flow in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump responds, “Yeah.” Asked if the US will control Hormuz after the war, Trump says, “We’ll have control of anything we want.”

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“I think we’re going to end [the war],” he adds.

Trump quips that when he told his defense secretary and military chief that he thinks the Iran war will be settled soon, the latter two were upset because they want to keep fighting.

Meanwhile, The White House spokeswoman describes the possibility of US-Iran talks as a “fluid situation.”

When asked about the possibility of the US participating in talks in Pakistan, press secretary Karoline Leavitt says in a statement that “these are sensitive diplomatic discussions and the US will not negotiate through the press.”

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“This is a fluid situation, and speculation about meetings should not be deemed as final until they are formally announced by the White House,” Leavitt says.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is expected to send thousands of troops from the elite 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, two people familiar with the matter tell Reuters, adding to the massive military buildup even as the Trump administration seeks talks with Iran.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, did not specify where in the Middle East the troops would be sent to and when they would arrive in the region.

The US military referred questions to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The UK’s Royal Navy will lead a “Hormuz Coalition” to reopen the key strait, The Times reports.

The UK will send mine-clearing ships along with the US and French navies, British officials tell the news outlet. Some of those vessels could be autonomous.

The UK has also offered to host a summit for the over 30 nations that signed a joint statement offering “appropriate efforts” to ensure shipping, Politico reports.