U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that Iranian negotiators were “begging” him for a ceasefire, even as they publicly said they were only reviewing Washington’s proposals.
“The Iranian negotiators are very different and ‘strange.’ They are ‘begging’ us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only ‘looking at our proposal,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.
“They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is no turning back, and it won’t be pretty!” the president warned.
In a separate post on Thursday, Trump accused NATO member states of having done “absolutely nothing to help with the lunatic nation, now militarily decimated, of Iran.”
Washington “needs nothing from NATO, but ‘never forget’ this very important point in time!” he stated.
Most NATO members have turned down Trump’s request to help provide safe passage to ships through the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iranian blockade, he said last week, adding that the United States doesn’t need their help.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. was close to meeting its “core objectives” in “Operation Epic Fury” as it systematically dismantles Iran’s defense industrial base.
U.S. efforts are focused on securing the Strait of Hormuz, including recent American strikes on underground facilities used to store anti-ship missiles and mobile launchers, she said.
Leavitt said that the U.S. military was making significant progress, with more than 9,000 targets struck in just over three weeks, leading to an estimated 90% reduction in Iran’s ballistic missile and drone attacks.
Washington and Tehran have been engaged in “productive talks” for the past three days, she said. “The president’s preference is always peace. There does not need to be any more death and destruction.”
However, the spokeswoman warned that if the Islamic Republic didn’t take advantage of the opportunity provided to it in the current talks, it would find itself under an attack that would dwarf current operations.
