WASHINGTON (AA): US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran is eager to negotiate as an American military operation continues but is reluctant to publicly acknowledge it.
"They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it, because they figure they'll be killed by their own people.
"They're also afraid they'll be killed by us," he said at the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual fundraising dinner.
Trump said there has never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran.
"I don't want it. Well, listen to some of the things they say. We hear very clearly they say...'We would like to make you the next Supreme Leader.' No thank you. I don't want it," he added.
The US is "decimating" Iran, he said.
"I won't use the word 'war' because they say, 'If you use the word war, that's maybe not a good thing to do.' They don't like the word war because you're supposed to get approval. So I'll use the word 'military operation,' which is really what it is. It's called a military decimation," he added.
Trump said he also called the operation an "excursion into hell, (an) excursion into a terrible place."
Turning to rising energy and oil prices, he said they did not matter to him because they were "short term" effects of the operation.
"What we had to do is get rid of the cancer. We had to cut out the cancer. The cancer was Iran with a nuclear weapon, and we've cut it out. Now we're going to finish it off," he added.
Hailing the US military, Trump said American forces intercepted a large-scale Iranian missile attack, claiming that all incoming projectiles were shot down.
"We had an attack. 100 missiles were shot by Iran at a very important thing that we had. I won't tell you what it was for certain reasons. 100 missiles going 2,000 miles an hour were coming at this element of importance, tremendous power and importance. And of the 100 missiles coming at us, 100 missiles were immediately shot down...We have the greatest military. We make the greatest military equipment," he added.
Regional tensions have escalated since Feb. 28, when the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran that has killed more than 1,340 people so far, including then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and Gulf countries that are home to US military assets.
Thirteen US service members have been killed and around 290 others have been injured since the operation began.