Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with President Donald Trump on Saturday about Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported. Hours later, Trump declared that Washington could take out Iran's one or two remaining nuclear sites, including Pickaxe Mountain, "in ten minutes." The administration is weighing whether to resume strikes on Iran.
Trump spoke to reporters on Saturday night at a Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago, his estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He claimed that the United States has already knocked out Iran's nuclear program.
Mar-a-lago (Photo: Shutterstock )
Israel is preparing in parallel. The IDF has completed its preparations for another round with Iran, and its readiness is exceptionally high. Trump has not yet decided whether to resume strikes alongside Israel. American and Israeli officials expect a bombing campaign of about a week after the US midterm elections if a Qatar-led offer to Tehran collapses.
Trump said the United States was in no rush to close a deal because of the damage already done to Iran's military.
"We're not in very much of a hurry from the standpoint that we've knocked out their navy. We've knocked out their air force. We've knocked out their anti-aircraft. We've knocked out almost every piece of military equipment they have. We've knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in ten minutes. You probably have to look at Pickaxe Mountain. We could do that all very quickly."
The president voiced doubt that Tehran would honor any agreement reached in the Qatari-mediated talks. "They're going fine, but they're not very reliable. They make a deal and then they back out. They want to make a deal. We'll see if they make a deal," Trump said. He also stated that "Iran will never have a nuclear weapon."
Trump refused to say whether new strikes were imminent. Pressed by a New York Times reporter on whether fighting with Iran could resume within days, he fired back: "Why would you ask such a stupid question? Let's say I did - would I tell you? I can't tell you things like that."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Saturday that the president has not decided on fresh strikes and would prefer a diplomatic solution. "We can achieve military objectives if we seek to. He hasn't made a decision," Rubio said after a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta. He noted that direct and indirect contacts with Tehran are continuing, but offered no timetable for an agreement.
The diplomatic track remains active. Iranian negotiators sat down with Qatari mediators in Doha on Saturday, a day after a marathon session in Tehran that ran past 12 hours, Reuters reported, citing a source briefed on the negotiations. Sources involved in the mediation told the Qatari newspaper Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed that the talks had made progress. The United States has not confirmed those reports.
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