Trump holding out hope deal can be reached with Iran

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

President Donald Trump is urging diplomacy with Iran following a meeting Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The allies met for a seventh time since the second-term Republican returned to the White House.

In a social media post, the president described the meeting as “very good,” while insisting that “negotiations with Iran continue” to determine whether a deal can be struck with the Islamic Republic.

“If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be,” Trump wrote. “Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer – that did not work well for them. Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible.”

The president is weighing an option of deploying a second aircraft carrier and strike group to the Middle East, signaling that another military strike could be on the table. He said, in an interview Tuesday, he would consider the move if the talks with the Islamic Republic fail.

Talks between the U.S. and Iran have been ongoing in Oman since late last week. Tensions are growing.

Israel is reportedly concerned with not only Iran rebuilding its nuclear program, but also ballistic missiles and support for proxy groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

While Trump won’t commit to whether the U.S. will strike Iran for the second time in less than a year, he continues to hurl threats at the Iranian regime, citing a large armada of American naval ships in the region, which has been growing.

Last week, the State Department warned Americans in the Islamic Republic to leave the country. Trump said Iran’s leadership “should be very worried” amid rumors that the talks had hit a snag; that was later rebuffed.

“I’m hearing that Iran wants to restart the new program,” Trump said in a network interview. “If that’s the case, we’ll send the forces to do the job again. They tried to go back to the site, but they couldn’t access it. We discovered that they wanted to open a nuclear site in another part of the country. I said, ‘You do that – we’ll do very bad things to you,’”

The president insists Operation Midnight Hammer, when the U.S. struck Iran’s nuclear sites in June, was a necessary step in pursuing peace in the Middle East.

“If we didn’t take out that nuclear, we wouldn’t have peace in the Middle East, because the Arab countries could’ve never done that,” Trump added. “They were very afraid of Iran. They’re not afraid of Iran anymore.”

During a press conference at the State Department last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared less optimistic that the U.S. and Iran could reach a deal.

“If the Iranians want to meet, we’re ready,” Rubio said. “I’m not sure you can reach a deal with these guys, but we’re going to try to find out. This is a president that always prefers a peaceful outcome to any conflict or any challenge.”

Last week, the U.S. confirmed it had shot down two Iranian drones flying near the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier sailing in the region.

It is not clear which carrier and strike group would be deployed to join the Lincoln in the Fifth Fleet. The USS Gerald Ford is deployed to the Caribbean to support counter-narco operations in the region.

Norfolk-homeported USS George H.W. Bush could be among contenders. The U.S. Naval Institute reported earlier in the week that the ship was spotted underway in the Western Atlantic.

The president continues to cite the increasingly significant naval presence in the region, hoping to pressure the Islamic Republic to “make a deal.”

“It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose,” the president wrote on social media. “It is a larger fleet, headed by the great Aircraft Carrier Abraham Lincoln, than that sent to Venezuela. Like Venezuela, it is ready, willing, and able to rapidly fulfill its mission, with speed and violence, if necessary.”

The president is calling on Iran to “come to the table and negotiate a fair and equitable deal,” underscoring that the Islamic Republic cease trying to rebuild its nuclear program.