Trump says talks with Iran to resume Monday
In his latest about-turn, the US president is seeking to de-escalate the recent confrontation because ‘the perimeters of a deal’ have been reached
U.S. President Donald Trump, said late Sunday that talks with Iran will resume this Monday. He made the remarks from the presidential plane en route to Egypt, after meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, who he said had asked him to call off strikes on the Islamic Republic because they believe there is room for an agreement.
This statement is another about-face after weeks of back and forth in which the president has swung between conciliatory language aimed at securing a deal and threats of military operations in response to Iranian attacks on U.S. bases in the region.
“We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Early on Monday, CNN reported that a U.S. military officer emailed troops seeking “new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran.”
Recurring messages
Trump’s Sunday remarks follow a message he posted on Saturday in which he said he had frozen strikes to try to reach a deal. He said he did so at the request of Tehran and other regional countries he did not specify.
The problem with that message is that it sounds familiar. On other occasions he has announced supposedly imminent agreements that either did not materialize or lasted only a short time. Trump insists the sine qua non condition for a deal with Tehran is the full and immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz, but Iranian authorities have shown they do not want to take that step, since they know it is their main bargaining chip.
When Israel and the United States launched Operation Epic Fury on February 28, they presented it as a surgical action intended to last a few days or weeks at the most. Instead, it has already stretched to five months with no sign of a near-term exit. This new U.S. turnaround underscores the strength of Iran’s negotiating position, which has withstood the strikes and made clear that time is on its side at a moment of growing domestic weakness for Trump because of the war’s low popularity and the proximity of the midterm elections on November 3.
Saturday’s announcement was published after Trump spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, one of Washington’s main allies in the region and an enemy of Iran, but a leader aware of the risks of an open war.
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