President Trump on Friday called on Iran to go back to the negotiating table and cut a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left” after Israel attacked its nuclear sites.
Why it matters: The Trump administration wants to use the war Israel started to get the Iranians back to the nuclear talks when they are in a weaker position.
- A U.S. official said White House envoy Steve Witkoff still wants to meet Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday for the planned sixth round of the nuclear talks. But the Iranians said they are not going to participate.
Driving the news: Trump is expected to convene the national security council in the White House situation room at 11am to discuss the war between Israel and Iran, the White House said.
What he is saying: “I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to just do it. But no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning.
- Trump said he warned Iran that military action against its nuclear program “would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told.”
- “Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!” he stressed.
- The president said another planned wave of attacks against Iran will be “even more brutal” and called on the Iranians to make a deal and “save what was once known as the Iranian Empire”.
- “JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump wrote.
- President Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their Monday phone call that he believes there’s a chance of reaching a nuclear deal with Iran and he therefore opposes military action at this time, an Israeli official and a U.S. official tell Axios.
- The call between Trump and Netanyahu took place several days before the expiration of the two-month deadline Trump gave Iran for reaching a deal.
- Axiois