Trump’s latest comments showed he could make a decision before the two-week-old deadline he set a day ago, as he dismissed European efforts to end the conflict and said it was “very difficult” to ask Israel to stop the attack.
A string of explosions were heard in Tehran on Friday as Israel maintained a huge wave of major strikes that aimed to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
“According to the assessment we’ve heard, we’ve been delaying the chances of them having a nuclear bomb for at least two to three years,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saa said in an interview released on Saturday.
Saa said the week-long onslaught of Israel will continue. “We will do everything we can to remove this threat,” he told the German newspaper Bild.
Filling the prospect of Trump taking part in a war with Israeli side, top British, French and German diplomats met Iranian Abbas Aragci in Geneva and urged him to resume talks with the United States, which had been derailed by Israeli attacks. However, Araguchi told NBC News after the meeting that “we are not ready to negotiate with them (US) as long as the attack continues.”
Trump denied Europe’s efforts and told reporters, “Iran doesn’t want to talk to Europe. They want to tell us. Europe won’t be able to help this.”
Trump also said he would unlikely ask Israel to stop the attack to bring Iran back to the table.
“If someone wins, it’s a little harder to do,” he said.
The US involvement could feature bombs that fill powerful bunkers other countries don’t own to destroy Ford’s underground uranium enrichment facility.
Many shops have been closed on the streets of Tehran, usually largely abandoned on Fridays.
450 missiles
Israel launched an attack on June 13, targeting nuclear and military sites, but attacking residential areas, which led Iran to respond with a barrage of Israeli authorities saying they had killed at least 25 people.
A hospital in Israel’s Haifa port has reported that 19 people have been injured, including one in serious condition, after the latest Iranian salvo.
More than 450 missiles have been fired in the country, along with around 400 drones so far, according to Israel’s director of the National Public Diplomacy.
Iran said on Sunday that the Israeli strike killed at least 224 people, including military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. Since then, the tolls have not been updated.
The Human Rights Activist News Agency, a US-based NGO, said on Friday that its victims were made based on its sources and media reports, with at least 657 people dead in Iran, including 263 civilians.
Israeli military said it struck a missile launcher in southwestern Iran after an overnight air raid with dozens of targets, including a nuclear research centre.
In Israel, sirens rang in the afternoon after the missile was launched from Iran for the second time on Friday. Iran’s innovative security guards said they targeted military facilities and air force bases.
Meanwhile, U.S. Navy officials said aircraft carriers will approach the Middle East next week and move third within or near the area.
“This is a dangerous moment and it’s very important not to see a regional escalation of this conflict,” said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that while it is the only country with no nuclear weapons to enrich uranium at 60%, there was no evidence that it had all the elements that would make a functional nuclear warhead.
“So it’s pure speculation, how long it will take them, because I don’t know if anyone was there… I’m secretly pursuing these activities,” agency Chihulafael Grossi told CNN.
“We haven’t seen it. We have to say it.”
The Arab Federation’s foreign minister met in Istanbul late on Friday to discuss the war, Turkish state news agency Anadoru said on the eve of a gathering of Islamic Cooperation Organizations (OICs) over the weekend.
Switzerland announced it would temporarily close its embassy in Tehran, adding that it will continue to play a role in representing the US interests of Iran.
