Donald Trump says Israel and Iran will reach an agreement 'soon'
US President Donald Trump has called on Israel and Iran to reach an agreement, suggesting that undisclosed talks were under way and predicting peace between the two countries soon.
'We will have peace, soon, between Israel and Iran,' Mr Trump said in a social media post on Sunday.
'Many calls and meetings now taking place,' he said. 'I do a lot and never get credit for anything, but that's OK, the people understand. Make the Middle East great again.'
The White House did not provide more details on the nature of the discussions.
Mr Trump also said that Washington could still become involved in the escalating conflict while emphasising that Washington was 'not at this moment' engaged in military action.
'It's possible we could get involved,' Mr Trump said in an interview with ABC News.
He told Tehran that any attack on the US would trigger a military response of unprecedented force, while distancing Washington from Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear and intelligence sites.
Writing on social media, Mr Trump said the US 'had nothing to do with the attack on Iran tonight', referring to Israel's military operations against Tehran. He acknowledged prior knowledge of the strikes.
Iran's UN envoy Amir Iravani accused the US on Friday during an emergency session of the Security Council of providing full political and intelligence support to Israeli strikes on Iranian territory, calling the attacks a 'declaration of war'.
'We will not forget that our people lost their lives as a result of the Israeli attacks with American weapons. These actions amount to a declaration of war,' he said.
Mr Trump said that if the US were to be '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'.
'We can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel and end this bloody conflict,' he added.
A round of US-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was cancelled.
He also expressed openness to Russian President Vladimir Putin acting as a mediator between the two Middle East foes, Mr Trump said, 'He is ready. He called me about it. We had a long talk about it.'
A round of US-Iran nuclear talks that was due to be held in Oman on Sunday was cancelled.
The Middle East teetered on the brink on Friday after the Israeli military launched Operation Rising Lion against Iran's nuclear and military sites.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was launched to 'roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival'.
'This operation will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,' he said on Friday.
Israel said its strikes have killed senior generals and also leading scientists and experts involved in Iran's nuclear programme.
During his first term as President, Mr Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, dismantling an agreement brokered three years earlier under his predecessor Barack Obama and reimposing sanctions.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
39 minutes ago
- The National
Only way home: Trepidation at Egypt's border with Israel as Iran conflict stops flights
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the order to launch a massive attack against Iran last week, sparking an open-ended war between the arch enemies, many thousands of Israelis, Palestinians and other residents were left with next to no options to return home. Ben Gurion Airport, a proud, ultra-high security symbol of Israel's resilience, was shut down indefinitely, so great is the risk from Iranian missile fire. The national carrier El Al, whose planes are fitted with advanced air defence systems, spirited its planes off to airfields abroad. The airline is known for almost always flying, even when other carriers cancel for security reasons. Only at the worst moments since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel in 2023 has it been forced to cancel or delay a handful of services. While open at certain times, many land border crossings are unpredictable, in particular the Allenby Bridge, which links Jordan to the occupied West Bank, which itself is under draconian restrictions. Only at the Eilat-Taba border crossing with Egypt, on a quiet and scenic corridor of land in the very south of Israel, have things been working almost as normal since the war began. The pocket of continuity is a testament to the oft-tested, still-enduring 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. Despite trepidation and official warnings, most people The National spoke with at Taba and Eilat on Monday seemed calm. After crossing into a modern Israeli terminal, the first thing to be seen was a photo of the former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin shaking hands as the beaming US president Jimmy Carter looked on. It was the moment that heralded peace between two countries who for many decades had been bitter, warring enemies. On the more ornate Egyptian side of the border, just after a line of hotel resorts, soldiers in white uniforms scanned bags and asked a trickle of passengers only a few questions about why they were travelling. A glimpse of an Israeli passport or work visa was enough to end any line of interrogation. The most direct exercise of authority was a soldier, without asking, taking a piece of chewing gum from a traveller's pile of pocket items left at the side of a metal detector, to smiles all round. Most of the conversations were held in Arabic, because most of the people crossing were Palestinians who hold Israeli passports. Israelis have nonetheless been urged not to use crossings with Arab states. Israel's National Security Council has warned its citizens not to try to get home through Jordanian or Egyptian land crossings. Moaz, an Egyptian taxi driver ferrying passengers to the crossing, said he did not understand the trepidation. 'Israelis need to understand there are never any problems here,' he said. 'The government is strong, the place is safe and people want to earn a living from travellers.' As the sun rose over Sinai's martian landscape, the bleak lack of Israeli tourism after October 7 became clear. Sharm El Sheikh, home to luxurious hotels and concert venues, and the world-famous diving hotspot Dahab further up the coast, seemed to be doing fine. But Nuweiba, where there are dozens of simple camps that used to be full of young Israelis, were completely abandoned. At the Eilat-Taba crossing, the only non-Arab Israeli citizens The National saw were security and border staff. An officer checking passports on the Israeli side asked with some bemusement why people were crossing into a warzone at all. 'I get it for Israelis and people like journalists, but we still get some regular visitors and I just don't understand why they come,' she said.
The National
an hour ago
- The National
President Sheikh Mohamed discusses regional developments with Iraq's Prime Minister
President Sheikh Mohamed spoke about events unfolding around the region during a phone call with Mohammed Shia Al Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq. The risk to peace and stability in the region was a central part of the conversation between the two leaders, said the state news agency Wam on Monday. They highlighted the importance of "de-escalation, restraint, and the resolution of conflicts through diplomatic means, in the interest of the region and its peoples". Bilateral relations and opportunities to strengthen co-operation were also discussed.
Middle East Eye
an hour ago
- Middle East Eye
Israel's attack on Iran brings the West closer to its day of reckoning
Israel is no longer hiding its crimes. In Gaza, it wages open genocide - razing hospitals, schools, mosques and apartment blocks. More than 55,000 people have been killed. A total siege chokes the demolished territory. Having walked for miles through ruins, exhausted and starving, civilians rush aid trucks for a chance at survival, only to be shot down. Some return with sacks of flour, others with the bloodied corpses of loved ones - gunned down, shelled, as they scrambled for a few grains. And Gaza is just one front. In Lebanon, Israel strikes at will - bombing homes, assassinating across borders, occupying villages it never left. It holds the Syrian Golan Heights, expands deeper into southern Syria, and fires missiles at the edge of Damascus. Borders mean nothing. Laws mean less. Israel moves how it wants, kills whom it wants. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Now it has turned to Iran. After indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in Oman, Israel launched a sudden, unprovoked war. First, assassinations: military leaders, scientists, civilian officials. Then air strikes: on military sites, power plants, airports - even public infrastructure. The excuse? Iran's peaceful nuclear programme, which is fully monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Western hypocrisy The hypocrisy is staggering. French President Emmanuel Macron rushed to Israel's side, asserting that Iran's nuclear programme is a threat to global security - this from the same France that helped secretly build Israel's Dimona nuclear facility in the 1950s and 1960s, enabling the region's only undeclared nuclear arsenal, in violation of international law. No inspections, no oversight, no accountability. Israel is now believed to possess between 80 and 90 nuclear warheads, along with second-strike capability via submarines and aircraft. It refuses inspections and has never signed the Non‑Proliferation Treaty. Yet it relentlessly bombs Iran in the name of nuclear non‑proliferation. The goal has never changed: subjugate the region, extract its wealth, silence its people. But this time, the playbook is failing Britain quickly followed France, sending Royal Air Force jets to the Middle East to back Israel. The US escalated further, moving two destroyers towards the Eastern Mediterranean, boosting weapons shipments, and syncing military operations with Israel in real time. Washington isn't watching; it's in the war. The European Commission followed blindly, repeating the same line: 'Israel has the right to defend itself' - even now, when it is the aggressor, and Iran is defending itself from foreign attack. It's the same script used to justify the genocide in Gaza; the same cover for crimes. International law and humanitarian norms are all suspended for Israel. And so the West continues to arm it to the teeth - not to protect civilians, but to dominate the region. To ensure Israel remains the only nuclear power. To control, crush, expand. Let's be clear: Israel was never just a state. It was created as a western settler colony to replace the retreating empires of Britain and France. Britain withdrew its troops, but not its ambitions. The US stepped in, taking over as regional enforcer by propping up tyrants, securing oil and suppressing resistance. The goal has never changed: subjugate the region, extract its wealth, silence its people. But this time, the playbook is failing. Arab world enraged Israel is now ruled by fanatics, openly and proudly. Ministers threaten annihilation. Settlers chant for genocide. Soldiers film themselves flattening apartment blocks and posing in the lingerie of the women they've displaced and killed. Families buried in concrete, children erased from classrooms - all in the name of 'security'. In Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, is stormed repeatedly. Israeli mobs march through the streets chanting: 'May your villages burn.' They celebrate the destruction of schools in Gaza. Genocide is no longer denied; it's declared. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the architect of apartheid and war, stands before the cameras claiming to defend the 'free world'. Across the Arab world, people are watching - bitter, disgusted and enraged. Their leaders shake hands with war criminals. They normalise while Israel incinerates. The region has been paralysed, powerless. Until now. Because this time, someone stood up. Iran is not Gaza. It is a sovereign state of around 90 million people, stretching across 1.65 million square kilometres. Its terrain frustrates invasions, its depth absorbs attacks, and its missiles reach deep into Israel. It has been sanctioned, sabotaged, assassinated - and it still stands, still strikes back. For the first time since 1948, Israeli cities are under sustained fire. The illusion of immunity is gone. And Israel cannot claim victimhood - not when it holds the bombs, the nukes, the backing of every western power. Not when it has spent decades attacking others with impunity. Reopening old wounds Indeed, Iran's resistance has shattered illusions: the myth of Israel's invincibility, the silence of the region, the lie of western neutrality. Even those once hostile to Iran on sectarian or political grounds are now cheering - not because Iran is perfect, but because someone finally said: no more. And within Iran, something deeper has awakened. This war has torn open old wounds. Most know 1953, when the CIA and MI6 orchestrated a coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh after he nationalised Iran's oil. Operation Ajax toppled a democratically elected government and reinstated Mohammad Reza Shah, a western-aligned dictator. What followed was 25 years of repression, enforced by the Savak secret police, armed and trained by the West. By allowing Israel to bomb Iran, Trump is pushing Tehran to go nuclear Read More » But the wounds stretch back further. In the early 1890s, a revolt shook the empire after the shah handed a British company control of Iran's entire tobacco industry. Led by clerics like Ayatollah Shirazi, Iranians launched a nationwide boycott, and the concession was ultimately cancelled. The revolt weakened the Qajar dynasty and planted in Iran's collective memory a searing lesson: never again bow to foreign control. That memory still lives - in every chant, every protest, every funeral. Every missile launched today carries the weight of a century of betrayal and resistance. Now, it's raw again. A clip has gone viral: an unveiled Iranian woman, her voice breaking with fury, denounces the genocide in Gaza, the silence of the West, and the decades of degradation inflicted on her country. Then she shouts: 'We want a nuclear bomb.' This isn't about destruction. It's about dignity. It's about saying: we will not be broken again. This is not just a military conflict, but a historical reckoning - a psychological rupture. Iran isn't just retaliating. It's remembering. And the shift is spreading. Clinging to fantasy Pakistan, the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons, has sounded the alarm. Its defence minister has warned that the region is on the brink, and Pakistan could be next. As Israel deepens its alliance with India, Islamabad sees what's coming. Turkey, too, is on alert. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last year that Israel would 'set its sights' on his country if it was 'not stopped'. Then came a chilling retort from Netanyahu in the Knesset: 'The Ottoman Empire will not be revived anytime soon.' This is not a history lesson, but a warning. Turkey knows this is not about Iran alone; it is a campaign to reassert full-spectrum control over the region. Israel, high on western backing and unchecked power, now believes it can subjugate the entire Muslim world: bomb it, starve it, fragment it, humiliate it. Israel thought it could repeat the past: assassinate, bomb, claim victory. But now Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashkelon are under fire But the region is waking up. This is a war on dignity, on the very idea that anyone in this region dares to stand tall. And still, the West clings to fantasy. The BBC interviews the shah's son, asking if Israeli strikes might help 'liberate' Iran. As if Iranians are waiting to be saved by the son of a dictator - a dictator they themselves overthrew. As if 'freedom' comes from missiles and monarchs. Israel thought it could repeat the past: assassinate, bomb, claim victory. But now Tel Aviv, Haifa and Ashkelon are under fire. The war has entered Israeli soil. The illusion of invulnerability is over. And Iran can endure. It has been preparing for this moment for decades. The dream that Israel could destroy it in days is gone. Tel Aviv has lit a fire it cannot contain. And the West? It stands behind Israel again - mask off. Arming it, shielding it, using it. Not for peace or justice, but for control. But this time, the region is awake. And the reckoning has begun. History is moving. And it may not move in the West's favour. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
