Washington,US President Donald Trump is “seriously considering” launching new strikes against Iran if last-minute negotiations do not result in a peace deal, just days after the halt into the war, US media outlet Axios reported on Friday. Even as Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir was in Tehran, joined by a delegation from Qatar in a last-ditch effort to hammer out a deal, the report said Trump met with a senior national security team in the morning to discuss the war on Iran.
Trump holds meeting with national security team on war with IranPresident Donald Trump met Friday morning with his senior national security team to discuss the war with Iran, two U.S. officials told Axios. And sources who have spoken directly to the president say Trump is mulling new strikes against Iran if negotiations do not yield a last-minute breakthrough.
Munir is due to meet Saturday with Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a key player in the Iranian decision-making process.
Negotiations have been "agonising," with drafts "going back and forth every day," with little progress, a US official briefed on the diplomatic efforts told Axios. Trump was joined at the Friday morning meeting at the White House by Vice President J D Vance, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other officials.
Trump: Iran desperate for dealIran is eager to strike a deal. We'll see how it goes. But we extracted a price from them and we had no choice because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. “They can’t have it,” Trump said at an event at the White House on Friday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Sweden there had been “slight progress” in talks with Iran. Rubio, speaking in Sweden where he was attending a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, said he did not want to overstate the progress in the talks, adding that there had been "a little bit of movement, and that's good."
Trump was in New York for a political rally ahead of the mid-term elections in November. He was to be spending the weekend at his Bedminster Golf Club in New Jersey but canceled and headed back to the White House Friday evening.
Trump also said in a Truth Social post that he would not attend his son Don Jr.'s wedding this weekend due to "circumstances pertaining to government and my love for the United States of America."
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