WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he paused military strikes on Iran to give diplomacy another chance but he is prepared to authorise another major attack if the talks fail.
“We are in very deep talks with Iran. If they don’t work out, we will go back to very strong military action,” Trump tells the Axios news site.
Trump insists that he’s not giving much time to talks, even though he has said that before and has allowed them to drag out an additional week. “Either it goes fast or not at all,” he claimed.
Explaining his decision to hold off on strikes — which was widely reported to have been made due to warnings from his generals that they were no longer effective and because the US is running out of missile interceptors — Trump says: “All of the people that deal with Iran asked me: ‘Don’t fire.’”Asked what he will discuss during meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he says: “I am going to talk to Bibi about the fact that if I weren’t president, Iran would have had nuclear weapons by now and Israel would have been destroyed.”
Mediators have achieved progress in getting the United States and Iran back to negotiations, regional officials say, after both sides paused attacks following a period of rapidly escalating tensions.
Neither the US nor Iran has reported carrying out any attacks for three days — a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.
The two regional officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks, said mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan are working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran to return to an interim ceasefire deal that collapsed after the exchanges of fire.
One of the regional officials describes the progress made in mediation efforts as “significant.” He says mediators are working with Iran and Oman on a mechanism for managing vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the flashpoint for the latest strikes and counterstrikes.Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said during a news conference in Tehran earlier that “mediators may convey messages to us from the American side” but that there are no direct negotiations.
The indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran are at a “serious stage,” according to an unnamed official in US President Donald Trump’s administration quoted by the Kan public broadcaster.
The official reportedly says both sides have passed proposals, in a sign of progress, but there are no agreements yet.
Washington selling F-35s to Turkey
US President Donald Trump dismissed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public cautioning against Washington selling F-35s to Turkey.
“Nobody tells me what we should be selling,” Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One.
“Turkey’s not a big fan of Israel, not a great fan of Bibi. But they’ve been great for me,” he adds, offering a window into how he makes foreign policy decisions.
Trump indicated earlier this month that he would approve the F-35 sale, but the State Department informed Congress last week that Ankara still does not qualify for the purchase.
Trump says he and Netanyahu have some disagreements, but are largely aligned on the issue of Iran.
“We have a little difference but [are] pretty close,” Trump tells reporters, amid speculation that Netanyahu will use his meeting tomorrow with the president to caution against reaching a diplomatic agreement with Tehran.
Trump goes on to reiterate that he agreed to hold off on striking Iran over the weekend because mediators told him that progress was being made in negotiations.
“They want to meet, and we’re meeting. There’s a chance we can make a deal. But without what we did, they wouldn’t even be talking to us,” Trump says.
Last week, Trump claimed that Iran wanted to meet but that he was not interested in meeting.
Trump reportedly agreed to hold off on striking Iran in recent days after his generals told him they had not been effective and that the US was running out of missile interceptors.
Trump insists that the US has more than enough ammunition before acknowledging that he would “like to have more,” especially of the “more sophisticated stuff.”
Asked if Saudi Arabia has reached out to express concern about him retroactively conditioning a civilian nuclear deal on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, Trump reveals that he has not even discussed the matter with the Saudis. “We haven’t talked about that,” Trump says.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq attacked by drones
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Iraq reported drone attacks in their territory Monday amid a lull in US air strikes against Iran, after nearly two weeks of fighting between both sides.
The Israel Defence Forces said Monday morning that it shot down two drones over the Jordan border, near the Dead Sea, adding that the drones did not cross into Israeli territory. Their origin was under investigation, the army said.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, some in its eastern province and others in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones had been launched from Iraq by Iran-backed militias, and it reserved the right to respond.
Satellite imagery circling on social media appeared to show damage caused to Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq oil processing facility in the country’s east. Separate footage showed a large plume of smoke rising, purportedly from the facility, following the attack.
Separately, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen said they had targeted transit sites carrying oil west to Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port of Yanbu, in retaliation for what it said were Saudi drone incursions into Yemeni airspace.
Riyadh did not immediately comment on the Houthis’ claims, which came after several days of strikes traded between the two sides. The fighting rekindled when the latter announced a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in the Red Sea, sending oil prices even higher.
Saudi Arabia responded with airstrikes on what it said were Houthi military facilities in Yemen’s Hodeidah port, saying it would protect shipping.
