A decision on when to end the war against the Islamic Republic will be made in conjunction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday.
“I think it’s mutual … a little bit. We’ve been talking,” the president told The Times of Israel in a brief telephone interview. “I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,” he said.
Asked whether the Israel Defense Forces could continue the fighting against Tehran even after the U.S. military halts its campaign, Trump only said, “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.”
Trump told the outlet that the Islamic regime could have destroyed Israel if it were not for the cooperation between him and Netanyahu.
“Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it,” Trump said. “We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS News in an interview published on Sunday that Washington’s demand for “unconditional surrender” will happen whether Tehran wants “to admit it or not.”
“This is war. This is conflict. This is bringing your enemy to their knees. Now, whether they will have a ceremony in Tehran Square and surrender, that’s up to them,” the defense secretary stated.
“What I want your viewers to understand is this is only just the beginning,” Hegseth said. “Our capabilities are overwhelming compared to what Iran’s are.
“And frankly, when you combine our Air Force with the Air Force of the Israeli Defense Forces—it’s the two most powerful air forces in the world,” the defense secretary said.
U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner are expected to meet Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Axios reported on Sunday.
The visit would be the first by senior U.S. officials to Israel since the Feb. 28 launch of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury,” the joint military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Witkoff, one of the two U.S. officials who led the negotiations with Iran, said last week that Iranian negotiators boasted about their ability to produce 11 nuclear bombs.
“Both the Iranian negotiators said to us directly with, you know, no shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms [1,014 pounds] of 60% [enriched uranium] and they’re aware that that could make 11 nuclear bombs, and that was the beginning of their negotiating stance,” Witkoff revealed on March 2.
Witkoff and Kushner spoke with Iranian negotiators in Switzerland days before the U.S. and Israel launched their joint military operation.
The Iranians “were proud of it, they were proud that they had evaded all sorts of oversight protocols to get to a place where they could deliver 11 nuclear bombs,” Witkoff said in the interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
