President Donald J. Trump has said the Iranian leadership has reached out to his administration to negotiate an end to the Israel-Iran conflict. President Trump said, “Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”
With respect to the prospects of a peace deal, he said that “nothing’s too late,” but that he was upfront with the Iranians when they reached out to him that “it’s very late… to be talking,” and that he was disappointed they did not negotiate with him in earnest when he attempted to before the first Israeli strikes.
“We may meet,” Trump added. Still, he stressed that, “There’s a big difference between now and a week ago,” with the Iranian regime having sustained heavy damage and the possibility of a U.S. strike on Iran’s hardened nuclear facilities on the table.
The signals from Washington are that it is prepared to bolster its military posture in support of Israel as evidenced by a soon to be total of three US aircraft carriers operating near Iran. Whether President Trump will lead the US into the war on Iran no one knows, and he’ll never show his hand. He has a lot riding on his campaign promise of “no new wars.” He’s a master 5D chess player and his skills executing The Art of the Deal as applied to war are in full play now.