Trump Signals Potential Renewed Strikes on Iran

(MENAFN) U.S. President Donald Trump put Iran on notice Tuesday, warning that American military strikes could resume within days should ongoing nuclear negotiations collapse — revealing he came within an hour of ordering an attack before standing down at the urging of Gulf allies.

Addressing reporters at the White House, Trump said Iran's leadership was "begging" to reach an agreement, yet made clear that patience in Washington is running thin. He indicated that a renewed offensive could materialize as early as Friday, over the weekend, or at the start of next week, asserting that the United States "can't let them have a new nuclear weapon."

Trump credited several Gulf allies with persuading him to pause, saying they conveyed encouraging signs of headway in Pakistan-brokered negotiations. In response, he said he would grant a "limited period of time" -- two or three days, at least -- for diplomacy to yield results.

The president drew a distinction between the current round of talks and earlier failed attempts. "We've had periods of time where we had, we thought, pretty much getting close to making a deal, and it didn't work out. But this is a little bit different," Trump told reporters one day earlier.

White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly echoed the administration's hardline stance in an interview Monday, declaring that "Iran must renounce their nuclear ambitions for good."

Tehran fired back with a pointed threat of its own. An Iranian news agency, citing army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia, warned that any resumed U.S. aggression would trigger a broader military response. "If the enemy acts foolishly, falls into the Israeli trap and commits another aggression, we will open new fronts against them with new methods," Akraminia was quoted as saying by the news agency on social media platform X.

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