(CNBC)-President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would be “honored” to meet Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
The U.S. president said he would meet the Iranian leader if a deal is reached to end the U.S.-Iran war, which has dragged on into its fourth month. Trump was taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office after making an announcement about coal.
“If we make a deal, it’s possible that I would meet,” he said. “I’d be okay with that.”
Khamenei was named the supreme leader in Iran after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of fighting.
Trump said that despite U.S.-Israeli strikes killing his father and other members of his family, he expects that Khamenei would be a “professional.”
“In some circles, he has a very good reputation, actually,” Trump said.
Mixed messages have emerged recently out of negotiations to end the war, which has upset global markets and caused oiland gasoline prices to spike. Iran has largely held the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel that carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, shut since the beginning of the war.
Gas prices were roughly $4.24 per gallon on average nationwide on Thursday, according to AAA.
The conflict has been in a tenuous ceasefire for weeks.
The U.S. is demanding that Iran agree to never acquire a nuclear weapon and immediately open the strait. The Iranians are demanding an immediate end to hostilities on multiple fronts and for the U.S. to end its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Iranian state media on Monday said Iran’s negotiators would halt negotiations and shut the strait. Then, on Wednesday, Trump said that Iran had agreed not to have a nuclear weapon.
