Despite the Israeli strikes, the US president has urged Tehran to comply with Washington’s demands over its nuclear program “before it is too late”
The US gave Iran “chance after chance to make a deal” over its nuclear program, US President Donald Trump has stated, suggesting that the Israeli airstrikes against the Islamic Republic are the result of its own recalcitrance. He called on Tehran to agree to Washington’s terms “before it is too late.”
The Israeli military conducted a series of airstrikes on numerous targets across Iran early on Friday, including military and nuclear sites. The Iranian authorities have confirmed that the attacks killed Major General Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces. Several media outlets have claimed that several other high-ranking Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists also perished.
In a post on his Truth Social platform later on Friday, Trump wrote that he “gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal” on its nuclear program, telling the Iranian leadership, “in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it’.” The US head of state suggested that he had warned Tehran that failure to comply with Washington’s demands would result in a massive Israeli attack, noting that its military is armed with a large number of US-made weapons.
According to Trump, while Israel is prepared to carry out further, “even more brutal” attacks against Iran, there is still a possibility to reverse the escalation.
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” the US president insisted.
Since April, the US and Iran have held several rounds of talks in Oman about Tehran’s nuclear program but no breakthrough has emerged.
The next encounter was scheduled for Sunday, but following the Israeli strikes, the Islamic Republic has reportedly withdrawn.
Washington has demanded all along that Tehran stop all uranium enrichment – something Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described as “completely detached from the reality of negotiations.”
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60% purity, far above the 3.67% cap set under the now-defunct 2015 nuclear deal, which was rendered null and void after President Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from it during his first term.
