US President Donald Trump stated that Iran "would love" to make a deal with the US but was not prepared to make "the right deal," while speaking to the press on Friday.
Trump also said that the US had total control over the "entire region having to do with the Strait of Hormuz," and explained that his announcements of US economic warfare against Iran did not mean that the US's military options were limited.
This comes a week after Trump vowed to hit Iran hard economically, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington would impose measures on Tehran that have "never been seen."
"They're not paying their soldiers, they're not paying their police. They have 350 percent inflation," Trump said of Iran on Friday.
Iranian media pushes back
Iranian media was quick to reject Trump's statements, with multiple state-aligned media outlets calling Trump's 350 percent inflation statistic a baseless claim with no correlation to economic reality.