WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Friday that limited strikes against Iran were possible, even as the country’s top diplomat said Tehran expected to have a deal ready in the coming days after nuclear talks with the United States.
In response to a reporter’s question about whether the U.S. might take limited military action while the countries negotiate, Trump said, “I guess I can say I’m considering it.” Hours later, he told reporters that Iran “better negotiate a fair deal.”
Earlier on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a TV interview that his country planned to finalize a draft agreement in “the next two to three days” to send to Washington.
“I don’t think it’s long, maybe in a week or so we can start real, serious negotiations on the text and come to a conclusion,” Araghchi said on MSNOW’s “Morning Joe.”
Tensions between the longtime adversaries have intensified as the Trump administration demands concessions from Iran and has built up the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades, with more warships and aircraft on the way.
On Friday, the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea after being dispatched by Trump from the Caribbean, according to images of the ship by marine photographers posted on social media.
Both Iran and the US have signaled they are ready for war if talks over Tehran’s nuclear program fail. “We are ready for diplomacy and we are ready for negotiations as much as we are ready for war,” Araghchi said on Friday.
Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the International Crisis Group, said Iran “would treat any kinetic action as an existential threat.”
Vaez said he doesn’t think Iran’s leaders are bluffing when they say they will retaliate, while they probably believe they could maintain their power despite any U.S. airstrikes.
What Iran and the US are negotiating
Trump said a day earlier that he believed 10 to 15 days was “sufficient time” for Iran to reach a deal after the latest rounds of indirect talks, including this week in Geneva, have made little progress. But talks have been stalled for years after Trump’s decision in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw the US from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Since then, Iran has refused to discuss broader US and Israeli demands to curtail its missile program and cut ties with armed groups.
Araghchi also said Friday that his American counterparts did not call for zero uranium enrichment in the latest round of talks, which is not what US officials have said publicly.
“What we’re talking about now is how to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program, including enrichment, is peaceful and will remain peaceful forever,” he said.
He added that in return, Iran would implement some confidence-building measures in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
In response to Araghchi’s claim, a White House official said Trump had been clear that Iran could not have nuclear weapons or the ability to build them and that it could not enrich uranium. The official was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Tehran has long insisted that any negotiations should focus only on its nuclear program and that it has not enriched uranium since last June’s US and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Trump said at the time that the strikes had “wiped out” Iran’s nuclear sites, but the exact damage is not known because Tehran has barred international inspectors.
Although Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, the US and others suspect it is aimed at eventually developing weapons.
What Congress has to say
Trump’s comments drew pushback from lawmakers who say the president should get congressional approval before any strike.
Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, said Friday he has introduced a war powers resolution that would require that step. While it has no chance of becoming law — in part because Trump himself would have to sign it — some bipartisan consensus has recently emerged among senators who have forced votes on previous resolutions on military action in Venezuela.
None of those resolutions passed, but they did manage to show how lawmakers are troubled by some of Trump’s aggressive foreign policy maneuvers.
“If some of my colleagues support war, then they should have the courage to vote for war and be held accountable by their constituents instead of hiding under their desks,” Kaine said in a statement.
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Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price, Ben Finley, Stephen Groves and Konstantin Toropin in Washington and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.