President Donald Trump on Sunday revealed negotiations are underway and a peace agreement between Israel and Iran could be coming “soon” in the conflict between the two countries.
“We will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that’s OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said in a post to Truth Social hours after the president promised “he can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict.”
The Israeli death toll has now risen to at least 13, including children, after it launched targeted strikes seeking to decapacitate Tehran’s nuclear and military capabilities on Thursday. The attacks prompted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime to respond with rounds of retaliatory missile attacks, including on civilian structures in Tel Aviv, that have injured more than 370 in Israel, while other victims are still missing, according to authorities.
Trump, who has sought since April to craft a deal with Iran to reel back its nuclear program in an effort to avoid warfare in the region, called again on the ayatollah and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a peace deal. The president suggested economic concerns over trade disruptions could incentivize Israel and Iran to end the conflict, a move he said could echo the ceasefire the United States brokered last month between India and Pakistan that placed the lid on a decadeslong rivalry between the two nuclear powers.
“Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal, just like I got India and Pakistan to make, in that case by using TRADE with the United States to bring reason, cohesion, and sanity into the talks with two excellent leaders who were able to quickly make a decision and STOP!” the president said Sunday.
Israel has asked Iran to stop its attacks and return to nuclear negotiations, according to NBC News. Israel attacked Iran days before scheduled nuclear talks.
The conflict in the Middle East will likely be discussed during the G7 summit this week, where the U.S. and its partners — the U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan — will hold talks. Trump is scheduled to arrive at the summit later Sunday.
During an interview with ABC News on Sunday morning, Trump said he was open to Russian President Vladimir Putin mediating a peace deal between Iran and Israel. Trump and Putin discussed the matter over a phone call on Saturday, Trump said, with the revelation coming as Russia has fostered a growing military alliance with Iran in recent years, likely making the ayatollah more open to listening to Putin’s advice on the conflict.
“He is ready. He called me about it,” Trump said about Putin. “We had a long talk about it. We talked about this more than his situation. This is something I believe is going to get resolved.”
Trump said that Iran wanted to make a deal, suggesting that the Israeli strikes might incentivize the regime to get to the negotiating table. Of U.S. involvement in the conflict, the president said, “We’re not involved in it [but] it’s possible we could get involved.”
While the Trump administration favors resolving concerns about Iran’s nuclear capabilities through diplomatic means, war hawks in Congress, including Sens. John Fetterman (D-PA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have pressed for disabling Iran’s nuclear facilities through military intervention.
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“Diplomacy is preferred,” Graham said during a CBS News interview on Sunday morning. “But force may be the only option … to go all in to make sure that when this operation is over, there’s nothing left standing in Iran regarding their nuclear program.”
“And I’ve said as clearly as I can say, if diplomacy fails, Mr. President — President Trump, you’ve been great, help Israel finish the job. Give them bombs, fly with them if necessary. I cannot stress to you how, if you want to get Russia right, you want to make China be better, you want to convince international terrorism we mean business, you’ve got to finish the job with Iran,” the South Carolina Republican continued.
