President Trump said Friday that the Israeli military campaign against Iran “will only get worse,” and he urged Tehran to immediately make a deal with the U.S. “before there is nothing left.”
Mr. Trump’s stark statement on social media came just hours after Israel launched a massive attack against Iran, targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, the country’s ballistic missile program, high-level military officials and leading scientists involved with the Islamic Republic’s nuclear research.
The attacks came after months of U.S. efforts to make a deal with Iran to dramatically limit its nuclear program. Even though the Israeli assault has begun, Mr. Trump said Iran still has time to avert even more destruction, and he suggested that diplomacy between his administration and Tehran is still viable.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ’just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come — And they know how to use it.
“Certain Iranian hardliners spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end,” he said. “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction.”
Mr. Trump finished his post in all caps, urging Iran to “just do it, before it is too late.”
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On Friday, the president added: “Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to ’make a deal.’ They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”
The Israeli armed forces described the strikes as the “first stage” of an ongoing operation, strongly suggesting that more military action is forthcoming over the weekend.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast the Israeli operation as a historic step to prevent a genocide of the Jewish people that could resemble the holocaust carried out by the Nazis more than 80 years ago.
“For decades, the tyrants in Tehran have brazenly, openly, called for Israel’s destruction. They’ve backed up their genocidal rhetoric with a program to develop nuclear weapons,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a video address. “This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.”
“Eighty years ago, the Jewish people were the victims of a holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime. Today, the Jewish state refuses to be a victim of a nuclear holocaust perpetrated by the Iranian regime,” he said.
The sixth round of nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran was set to take place Sunday in Oman. The Mideast country has been mediating the negotiations.
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It’s unclear whether such negotiations will go forward in light of the Israeli strikes.
