‘I told Iran they should settle and they almost got there but not quite,’ president says in brief phone interview
President Donald Trump said he was in good spirits following Israel’s punishing strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities Thursday evening.
“I feel good, I feel very good,” Trump told the Washington Free Beacon during a brief phone interview Friday morning. “Doing well.”
After months of negotiations between the United States and the Iranian regime, Israel launched preemptive strikes against the Islamic Republic, killing a slew of top generals and nuclear scientists and damaging Iran’s main nuclear facility. The strikes are the beginning of what is expected to be a multi-day bombardment of the country. Trump said Iran was close to settling on a deal ahead of the strikes but didn’t “quite” agree to one.
“I told Iran they should settle, and they almost got there, but not quite,” he said. “They should still settle.”
Trump was tight-lipped on whether the United States offered any kind of coordination to the Israelis. He said it was still not too late for the Iranians to come to the table.
“There’s time but it would have been a lot easier if they did it early,” Trump said. “Well, if I were them, I would want to settle. I can tell you that.”
Iran appears to be done with nuclear talks for now, canceling a planned round of negotiations with special envoy Steve Witkoff that had been scheduled to take place in Oman on Sunday. Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News that he is “hoping to get back to the negotiating table” but there are “several people” in Iranian leadership “that will not be coming back.”
Trump said he would be providing additional information about the strike in a statement later today.
