Trump warns Iran to agree to a deal ‘before there is nothing left’
When asked about a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday that sought to put distance between the US and the Israeli action, Trump told Dana Bash: “We of course support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it.”
The president went on to urge Iran to reach a deal.
“Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,” he told CNN.
“They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them. You know, the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners,” the president said. He would not specify which people he was referring to.
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said.
The source would not divulge the substance of those earlier calls but reiterated that Trump believes the attack was a result of Iran failing to strike an agreement on a new nuclear deal before his 60-day deadline expired.
White House officials continue to argue that the president is committed to salvaging the nuclear talks. The source said special envoy Steve Witkoff is “ready” to meet Iranian officials when they are – whether it be in Oman on Sunday as previously scheduled or at some date thereafter.
The president had warned Iran earlier on Friday to agree to a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left,” suggesting in a social media post that subsequent Israeli attacks on the country will be “even more brutal.”
The post marked Trump’s first public comments since Israel launched strikes on Iran targeting its nuclear program and military leaders, with the US president saying he had tried to steer Iranian leaders toward diplomacy, but they failed to act at great cost.
“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.
Trump wrote that Iranian leaders “didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!”
