US President Donald Trump signalled on Friday evening that he was unlikely to urge Israel to halt its military campaign against Iran, saying it was difficult to intervene “when somebody is winning.” His comments to reporters come amid intensifying conflict between the two regional powers and growing international efforts to revive diplomacy.
Trump was asked about Iran’s insistence that no talks with the US could proceed while Israeli airstrikes continued. “I think it’s very hard to make that request right now,” he said. “If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do that than if somebody’s losing. But we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran.”
“Israel is doing well, in terms of war, and… Iran is doing less well,” he added.
His remarks came shortly after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi ruled out nuclear negotiations with Washington “until Israeli aggression stops.” Despite this, Araghchi proceeded to Geneva for talks with European foreign ministers aimed at reviving diplomacy and preventing further escalation.
Diplomacy with Iran can “easily” be started again if Trump orders Israel’s leadership to stop its strikes on Iran, Majid Farahani, an official with the Iranian presidency told CNN on Friday.
“President Trump can easily stop the war by only one telephone call to the Israelis,” he said, repeating the Iranian position that talks were impossible while Israeli bombs were striking Iran.
Trump also dismissed the European effort for negotiations. He brushed aside hopes that Europe could mediate a path forward. “Europe is not going to be able to help in this.”
He reiterated his stance as a “peacemaker,” but added: “Sometimes you need some toughness to make peace.”
Asked if the US would send in ground troops, Trump said, “That’s the last thing you want to do,” while referencing the two-week window he recently set to decide whether the US would join Israel in the war. “I would say two weeks would be the maximum,” he noted, saying the pause was meant to give diplomacy a chance.
Trump also addressed growing concerns about parallels with the Iraq War, when the US invaded based on faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction. “In that case, there were none,” he said. “In this case, Iran has a tremendous amount of material and is within weeks, or certainly within months, of having a nuclear weapon.”
This assessment appears to contradict the view of US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who testified to Congress in March that Iran had not yet made a decision to build a nuclear weapon. “She’s wrong,” Trump declared.
Perhaps most notably, Trump appeared to express doubt over Israel’s ability to destroy Iran’s highly fortified Fordo nuclear facility without US assistance. “They really have a very limited capacity,” he said. “They could break through a little section, but they can’t go down very deep. They don’t have that capacity.”
Fordo, built deep into a mountain near Qom, is one of Iran’s most protected sites. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that Israel has the means to eliminate all of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, military analysts note that Israel lacks the B-2 stealth bombers equipped with massive bunker-busting bombs capable of penetrating the 60-metre depth of the facility. Only the US possesses such weapons.
Despite his scepticism, Israel has reportedly been pressing the US behind the scenes to help neutralise the site. Israeli airstrikes that began on June 13 have already targeted key elements of Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes, including the Natanz facility, as well as military leaders and scientists.
Iran says at least 224 of its citizens have died in the Israeli strikes, including high-ranking military officials, nuclear scientists, and civilians.
