WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday that newly planned talks with Tehran are the “last chance” for Iran to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of U.S. strikes on the country.
Trump, speaking at the Oval Office, said he expects negotiations that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and create a pathway for Iran to address the United States’ concerns about its nuclear program will begin in the next day or two.
“The first phase is the opening of the straits. The second phase will be the denuclearization,” the Republican president said. “And that will take a little while.”
While Trump has reveled in the U.S. military decimating layers of Tehran’s leadership and devastating its air force and navy, Iran is betting it can outlast Trump as he faces diminished stockpiles of munitions and the difficulty of executing a war that is unpopular with the American electorate ahead of November’s midterm election.
Trump said he decided to hold off on ordering American forces to carry out new massive strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He said that a plan was in place for U.S. forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II” on Sunday. But he decided to scrap the plan and give diplomacy more time to play out after hearing from key Gulf leaders — including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.
But Trump reiterated that he’s running out of patience with Iran.
“This the last chance for them to sign a good document,” Trump told reporters.
Earlier Monday, Trump had criticized Iran on social media as being “unbelievably duplicitous.”
His ire was raised by Iran claiming that its meetings with Oman on Monday were focused solely on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for the global oil trade.
“They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with Oman,” Trump grumbled.
Trump said whether “Iran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking” about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump may still come to the conclusion that a massive escalation in the conflict with Iran is necessary.
But critics say his hesitation also might reflect an unspoken understanding inside the administration that U.S. military might alone may not be enough to compel Iran to back down and bring an end to a now monthslong war that Trump had earlier downplayed as a weekslong excursion.
“I think what we’re seeing here is a president who has an approach that’s just rather erratic,” said Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “At this point, he’s trying to get us back to February. And I think if he could — if he had a big reset button he could hit — he would certainly take that option.”
There have been several moments over the course of the conflict when Trump has demonstrated his proclivity for the bellicose only to back off at the last minute, while declaring his threats spurred progress:
In early April, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in an announcement that came less than two hours before a deadline Trump had set for Tehran to capitulate or face attacks on bridges and power plants — strikes he said would mean “a whole civilization will die.”
Then in June, Trump threatened to hit Iran “VERY HARD” and seize Iran’s energy base on Kharg Island to “assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets,” he wrote on social media, only to call off the strikes in a later post after claiming that peace negotiations had progressed with high-level Iranian leaders.
Left unsaid by the president was that such an endeavor would require U.S. troops on the ground in Iran — a risky proposition politically for a president who campaigned on avoiding foreign entanglements and criticized past administrations for getting bogged down in endless wars.
With this latest episode, Trump suggested that Bin Salman played a particularly important role in him turning away from escalating the fight.
The U.S. president spoke by phone with the de facto leader of the kingdom on Saturday before announcing he was halting strikes.
The crown prince conveyed that an escalation in fighting could have a severe impact on the global economy if Tehran responded to a new U.S. bombardment by targeting some of the United States’ Gulf allies, according to a person briefed on the call who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
Saudi officials, the person added, have underscored in their engagements with the Trump administration that the kingdom is in a good position to defend itself against further potential Iranian strikes — as are fellow energy titans Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — but that Kuwait could be more vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Also Monday, Iran’s judiciary said it executed two men after convicting them of spying for Israel during both last year’s 12-day war and the ongoing conflict.
The judiciary’s Mizan news agency identified the two as Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat, who were accused of providing military coordinates, images and other intelligence used in attacks on Iranian targets.
Last week, Iran publicly hanged two men convicted of killing four police officers during nationwide anti-government protests in January.
Madhani writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel and Josh Boak contributed reporting.
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