'I heard Tehran wanted to talk badly': Trump signals conditional willingness to talk with Iran 

US President Donald Trump ​told Fox News that it's possible ‌he would be willing to talk with Iran, but that it depends on ​the terms, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

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When asked ​about the possibility of negotiations with ​Tehran, Trump said he heard Tehran wanted to talk badly. He also reiterated his unhappiness with Iran's new Supreme ‌Leader Mojtaba ⁠Khamenei, saying: "I don't believe he can live in peace."

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On Monday, Trump said the war against Iran could be short-lived, but warned that the US would hit hard if Tehran tried to block global oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. "We took a little excursion" to the Middle East "to get rid of some evil. And, I think you will see it is going to be a short-term excursion", Trump told Republican lawmakers at his golf club near Miami. 

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Hours later, he posted on social media: "If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far." However, a spokesperson for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Ali Mohammad Naini, said, "Iran will determine when the war ends." 

Mojtaba Khamenei is only the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic. He has close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989, was killed during the war's opening salvo. 

The younger Khamenei was long considered a potential successor -- even before the killing of his 86-year-old father. Trump told reporters that he was "disappointed" that Mojtaba Khamenei was picked and that he liked "the idea" of a leader drawn from an "internal" group of candidates, saying that worked well with Venezuela. 

Khamenei is seen as even less compromising than his late father. As supreme leader, he has the final say on all major policies, including Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. Though Iran's key nuclear sites are in tatters after the US bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, it still has highly-enriched uranium that is a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did -- build a nuclear bomb. 

Trump said the war with Iran started because that country was working on a new site for developing material for nuclear weapons to replace one bombed last year by the US. Israel has already described Khamenei as a potential target. Trump said on Monday it "would be inappropriate" to say whether he would be targeted. 

(With inputs from Associated Press)