WASHINGTON — President Trump suggested Friday that he has not given up on reaching a revised nuclear agreement with Iran, despite Israel’s spectacular attack targeting the Islamic Republic’s military and enrichment facilities hours earlier.
“Maybe now they will negotiate seriously,” the president told Axios in a brief interview following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ahead of an all-day meeting with this national security team.
“They should have made a deal,” Trump added. “I couldn’t get them to a deal in 60 days. They were close, they should have done it. Maybe now it will happen.”
The Israeli strikes came days before a scheduled sixth round of indirect talks between US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian officials.
“Oftentimes,” a source to the White House told The Post of the administration’s thinking Friday, “pain is the best form of persuasion.”
“What are they going to do now?” Netanyahu told Axios when asked about Washington’s next steps. “I leave it to President Trump. He made clear that Iran must not have a nuclear weapon.”
“I leave the US position to the US,” the PM repeated.
Trump, 78, also indicated in a series of Truth Social posts that he was hopeful Iran would still come to the negotiating table, despite the devastating impact of the Israeli attack.
“There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being more brutal, come to an end,” Trump wrote early Friday morning.
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian empire.”
Also Friday morning, Trump claimed in a phone interview with The Post that he “always knew the date” for Israel to strike Iran if a quick agreement could not be reached.
“I gave them 60 days and they didn’t meet it,” he said. “Today’s [day] 61, you know. Today’s day 61.”
Iran has yet to show signs of agreeing to any deal that would halt their nuclear program — even for civilian purposes, as the US desires.
Friday evening, Tehran launched at least 150 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory, causing at least 15 injuries and damaging parts of downtown Tel Aviv.
“The Zionist regime has made a big mistake, a grave error, committed a reckless act. By God’s grace, the consequences of this will bring that regime to ruin,” Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini warned in a televised address.
“The Iranian nation won’t permit the blood of its valued martyrs to go unavenged, nor will it ignore the violation of its airspace,” the dictator threatened.
Netanyahu responded in an English-language address meant for the Iranian people, in which he warned the theocratic regime:
“In the past 24 hours, we’ve taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime’s most significant enrichment facility, and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal. More is on the way.
“The regime doesn’t know what hit them,” Netanyahu added. “They don’t know what will hit them.”
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