Ammon News - President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Iran wants to meet and make a deal, as the U.S. military announced that it launched attacks against Iranian targets for the second time in 12 hours.

But Iran has publicly maintained its combat-ready posture, and defense analysts told CNBC they see no clear path to a settlement of the renewed hostilities between Washington and Tehran.

“We received a call just as I was coming here that they want to meet,” Trump said in a Fox Business interview before participating in a roundtable event in Pennsylvania on defense and innovation.

“They always want to meet,” he said of the Islamic republic, insisting that its military capabilities have been largely depleted — a claim that he has made in similar terms for months.

“They’re nasty people, but they want to make a deal,” Trump said.

Around the same time, U.S. Central Command said in an X post that at 3 p.m. ET, its forces “launched operations for a second wave of strikes today against Iran.”

“The strikes are targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.

The U.S. had already attacked Iran around 6 a.m. ET, hours after Trump warned that military strikes would intensify next week if Tehran does not cooperate in peace talks.

Those attacks ended at 7:30 a.m. ET, CENTCOM said, adding that precision munitions had been launched against Iran’s coastal defense systems, and cruise missile storage and launch sites on Greater Tunb Island.

The Tunb Islands are small islands located in the Persian Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s stance
Recent statements from Iranian officials portray Tehran as being prepared to keep fighting, but still open to the possibility of diplomacy.

“We have never welcomed war, and we will not, but we must always be prepared for battle,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a translated statement reported in Iranian state media.

“In addition to this, we must also use the tools of diplomacy and negotiation to achieve and solidify our national interests,” said Ghalibaf.

CNBC