Trump Warns: "If Talks With Iran Collapse, We’ll Return to Very Strong Military Action"

President Donald Trump revealed that the decision, for now, to halt American strikes against Iran was made in order to allow one more chance for a diplomatic effort. But he made clear that if those political efforts do not produce results, the U.S. will return to using military force. In an interview he gave today (Monday) to the news site "Axios," Trump said the talks with Iran are now underway and that he will not agree to extend them indefinitely. At the same time, he also addressed his expected meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

According to Trump, the current contacts are focused on shaping a new agreement that would allow the Strait of Hormuz to reopen and revive negotiations over a comprehensive nuclear deal. The talks are being conducted mainly between Iran and Oman, but Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, and Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are also actively involved in mediation efforts.

During the interview, Trump said: "The negotiations with Iran are deep. If they don’t succeed, we’ll return to very strong military action." When asked how much time he is willing to give the diplomatic track, he replied: "Not much time. Either it moves quickly or not at all."

The American president said the decision to stop the strikes was made on Friday, after the mediating countries asked him to give the talks one more chance: "All the people dealing with Iran asked me: 'Don’t shoot.'" Trump added that, in his view, Tehran is interested in reaching an agreement.

Referring to his decision to accept the mediators’ request, he said: "Nothing was achieved, nothing was lost." According to Trump, after the announcement that the strikes were being halted, oil prices fell and stock markets rose—developments that, he said, reinforced the decision he made.

Meanwhile, Trump is expected to meet tomorrow at the White House with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ahead of the meeting, he said: "I’m going to talk with Bibi about the fact that if I weren’t president, Iran would already have nuclear weapons and Israel would have been destroyed."

Trump’s remarks came a day after reports in the American media said he had decided to delay, at least for now, the possibility of a large-scale American operation against Iran. According to those reports, the decision was made בעקבות concerns voiced by senior officials in the American defense establishment about significant erosion in stockpiles of air defense missiles and munitions.