Iran Cries Uncle: Wants to End Israeli Attacks, Negotiate with Trump
Iran has sent messages to both Israel and the United States that it wants to end the war and to negotiate with President Donald Trump, and could give up its nuclear enrichment program to save the Iranian regime.
Reports of Iran’s eagerness to end the fight came as Israeli fighters attacked regime institutions in the capital city of Tehran, including the state broadcaster, after achieving total dominance of Iranian airspace.
The Wall Street Journalreported:
Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said.
In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the attacks will continue until Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles are destroyed, and he has shown no indication he is ready to stop. He has also said regime change isn’t a goal but could be a result given the Iranian leadership’s weakness.
Israel is unlikely to relent until it has destroyed most or all of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, which have continued to fire barrages at Israeli civilians, usually at night. It may also continue fighting to destroy as much of Iran’s remaining nuclear facilities as possible.
It is also unclear whether Iran had explictly offered to end nuclear enrichment program, as the U.S. had demanded before the war. The Journal suggested Iran had not conceded that point, but wants the war to end.
President Trump had earlier said that he wants to keep the U.S. out of the war. But the U.S. has also been moving military assets into position to assist Israel.
Speaking next to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, Trump confirmed that he had received Iran’s messages about wanting to end the war.
“They’d like to talk, but they should have done that before,” Trump said, responding to questions from reporters. “I had 60 days, and they had 60 days, and on the 61st day, I said, ‘We don’t have a deal.’
“They have to make a deal. And it’s painful for both parties. But I’d say Iran is not winning this war. And they should talk, and they should talk immediately, before it’s too late.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
