Trump hits out at critics, says Tehran ‘really wants’ a deal

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at critics as a potential agreement with Iran remains elusive, saying that Tehran “really wants to make a deal” and that it will be a good one for the U.S. and its allies.

His comments come as air strikes between the U.S. and Iran resumed over the weekend, with each side claiming to have hit military targets near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that typically handles around 20% of the world’s global oil traffic.

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“But don’t the Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever,” Trump said.

“Just sit back and relax, it will all work out well in the end – It always does!”

The U.S. Central Command said it had conducted “self-defense strikes” on Iranian radar and command and control sites for drones in Goruk and Qeshm Island over the weekend, while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it targeted an air base used in the U.S. attack in retaliation.

An Axios report published Saturday said Trump had requested several amendments to the latest terms his envoys had reached with Iranian officials. The report cited one senior administration official and a second source briefed on the issue. CNBC was unable to independently verify the report.

The U.S. president has repeatedly said Washington and Tehran have been close to agreeing a deal since a ceasefire came into effect in early April, although talks have shown little progress in recent weeks.

Guntram Wolff, senior fellow at Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel, said market participants are “way too optimistic” about the prospect of a diplomatic breakthrough.

“The problem I would say is that we have been promised a good deal for a long time now and it’s more than 90 days gone,” Wolff told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Monday.

“I understand it will take time to really have a solid deal but have the fundamentals changed? No, they haven’t. Iran continues to have significant capabilities to inflict a lot of damage, it can continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, it still has nuclear-enriched materials, so the fundamentals haven’t changed,” he added.