WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Iran and Israel — who are locked in an exchange of military strikes — to “make a deal,” but suggested they might need to “fight it out” first.
“I think it’s time for a deal,” Trump told reporters, as Israel and Iran exchanged a fresh barrage of missile strikes and threatened more devastation in a conflict that appeared to be intensifying.
“But sometimes they have to fight it out, but we’re going to see what happens,” Trump said, speaking at the White House before heading to Canada to take part in a G7 summit.
Trump warned Iran earlier on Sunday that it would experience “the full strength” of the US military if it attacks the United States, reiterating that Washington “had nothing to do” with Israel’s strikes on Tehran’s nuclear and intelligence facilities.
After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marks the first time arch-enemies Israel and Iran have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.
Israel’s operation, which began early Friday, has targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites, killing dozens of people including top army commanders and atomic scientists, according to Tehran.
Trump refused to answer a question about whether he had asked Israel to pause airstrikes on Iran.
Earlier, a senior US official told AFP that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he believed the two sides “should make a deal, and will make a deal.”
There are “many calls and meetings now taking place” on the issue and peace could be achieved “soon” between the longtime adversaries, he said.
When asked about the report, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday: “There’s so many false reports of conversations that never happened, and I’m not going to get into that.”
“We do what we need to do,” he told Fox’s “Special Report With Bret Baier.” Regime change in Iran could be a result of Israel’s military attacks, Netanyahu said in the interview, adding that Israel would do what it takes to remove what he called the “existential threat” posed by Tehran.
Netanyahu has vowed to hit “every target of the ayatollah regime,” and Iran has retaliated with a deadly barrage of missiles.
While Trump had said he was aware of the Israeli operation before it started, he reiterated Sunday morning on his Truth Social platform that the United States “had nothing to do with the attack on Iran, tonight.”
“If we are attacked in any way, shape or form by Iran, the full strength and might of the US Armed Forces will come down on you at levels never seen before,” he said in a post.
He added that “we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!”
On Friday, the US president urged Tehran to make a deal or face “even more brutal” attacks by Israel.
During his first term, a landmark nuclear accord with Iran — negotiated under former president Barack Obama — was torpedoed in 2018 when Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States and reimposed sanctions.
