President Trump said Iran has not informed him of their desire to quit peace negotiations over Israel’s actions in Lebanon, but he said it is “fine if they’re done talking.”
Mr. Trump signaled that if Tehran withdraws from talks, he would prefer economic pressure over renewed strikes.
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there,” Mr. Trump told NBC News. “We’ll keep the blockade.”
The president was referring to the blockade of Iranian ports that is squeezing the regime, economically, as it struggles to get critical oil revenue through maritime shipments.
Mr. Trump believes the blockade will force Tehran to accept his terms and forfeit its hopes of obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The president had been mulling a 60-day agreement that would extend a ceasefire, lift the blockade and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, an oil chokepoint that Iran effectively shut down during the war.
SEE ALSO: Trump: Iran war negotiations intact, Netanyahu will cool it in Lebanon
Instead of nearing agreement, the ceasefire all but collapsed on Monday.
The U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in the region, and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said Tehran decided to pull out of talks altogether because Israel renewed its bombardment of Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists in southern Beirut.
“The cease-fire between Iran and the U.S. is unequivocally a cease-fire on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media. “Its violation on one front is a violation of the cease-fire on all fronts.”
Mr. Trump said he was not surprised by Iran’s threat.
“It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” he said. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”
“If they don’t want to talk, that’s okay with me,” he told NBC. “I think it’s fine. I don’t particularly want to talk either. We talk too much.”
SEE ALSO: Iran suspends talks with U.S. over Israeli attack in Lebanon; CENTCOM intercepts missiles to Kuwait
Democrats and other critics of Mr. Trump’s war with Iran say the conflict is taking a toll back home, particularly in the form of high gas prices.
Mr. Trump says he refuses to be rushed into a bad deal with Iran, and that oil and gas prices will plummet once the war is settled.
