'Iran is not winning this war,' Trump says at G7
Negar Mojtahedi
Iran International
US President Donald Trump said Iran was on the backfoot in its four-day-old war with Israel and that Tehran needed to quickly resort to diplomacy.
Iran International
US President Donald Trump said Iran was on the backfoot in its four-day-old war with Israel and that Tehran needed to quickly resort to diplomacy.
“Iran is not winning this war," Trump said at the G7 summit in Alberta on Monday. “They should talk — and they should do it immediately,” he warned.
Tehran had fallen afoul of a two-month deadline he had set for them making concessions on their nuclear program in talks, he added. “They had 60 days and on the 61st day we didn’t have a deal.”
Iran is now pushing for renewed negotiations, Trump said.
Asked what would prompt direct US military involvement, Trump refused to elaborate: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
But his support for Israel was unequivocal. “We’ve always supported Israel,” he said. “Israel is doing very well right now.”
The comments came as the war entered a dangerous new phase, with both sides stepping up deadly attacks and Israel targeting Iran's state broadcasting headquarters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “is not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict.”
Despite the rhetoric, there are signs of diplomatic maneuvering. According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran has conveyed to Arab intermediaries that it is willing to resume nuclear negotiations—on condition that the US does not join Israel in further strikes.
“Iran has told Arab officials they would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the US doesn’t join the attack,” the officials said, according to the newspaper.
Messages relayed to Israel warned “it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.”
Iran, according to a Reuters report, has asked Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman to urge Trump to pressure Israel into a ceasefire, offering concessions on the nuclear file in return.
