Israel ‘will lead military against Iran’ if talks fail Donald Trump warns

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s talks on Tehran’s nuclear program between US and Iran officials, Mr Trump said military action was ‘absolutely’ possible if the negotiations fail.

Donald Trump says military action against Iran is possible if talks over Ayatollah Khamenei’s nuclear program don’t succeed. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump has warned Israel would be the “leader” of a potential military strike against Iran if talks on its nuclear program failed to produce a deal, as Tehran continued to insist it would not dismantle the program.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s scheduled talks between US and Iranian officials in the Oman, Mr Trump said military action against Iran was “absolutely” possible if Tehran doesn’t give it up its program, adding that there “was not much time” to reach an agreement

“If it requires military, we’re going to have military. Israel will obviously be very much involved in that, be the leader of that,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “nobody leads us, but we do what we want to do.”

Adding to the pressure on Tehran, Washington slapped new sanctions against entities involved in the program. The designated groups include the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and subordinates Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, Thorium Power Company, Pars Reactors Construction and Development Company and Azarab Industries Co.

“The Iranian regime’s reckless pursuit of nuclear weapons remains a grave threat to the United States and a menace to regional stability and global security,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Treasury will continue to leverage our tools and authorities to disrupt any attempt by Iran to advance its nuclear program and its broader destabilising agenda.”

The United States has become increasingly concerned as Tehran moves closer than ever to a workable nuclear weapon.

But Mr Trump said he didn’t have a definitive timeline for the talks to come to a resolution.

“When you start talks, you know, if they’re going along well or not,” Mr Trump said. “And I would say the conclusion would be what I think they’re not going along well. So that’s just a feeling.”

However Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told officials gathered to celebrate Iran’s nuclear achievements that Tehran had no intention of developing nuclear bombs, but wouldn’t relinquish its “impressive progress” in the field either. However he dangled the prospect of direct American investment in Iran if the countries reached a deal.

The Tehran Times reported that Mr Pezeshkian said the West claims that: “Iran wants to produce nuclear bombs. Who is more authoritative than Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who has officially and publicly declared that we are not seeking to build nuclear bombs?”

He added: “You’ve verified it a hundred times, and you can verify it a thousand times more, but know this: we need nuclear science and nuclear energy in all fields.”

But he said: “His excellency (Ayatollah Khamenei) has no opposition to investment by American investors in Iran.

“American investors: Come and invest.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week said he supports Mr Trump’s diplomatic efforts to reach a settlement with Iran. He added that Israel and the U.S. share the same goal of ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu, however, led efforts to persuade Trump to pull out of a U.S.-brokered deal with Iran in 2018.

The Israeli leader, known for his hawkish views on Iran and past calls for military pressure, said he would welcome a diplomatic agreement along the lines of Libya’s deal with the international community in 2003. But that deal saw Libya’s late dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi give up all of his clandestine nuclear program. Iran has insisted its program, acknowledged to the International Atomic Energy Agency, should continue.

“I think that would be a good thing,” Netanyahu said. “But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”

The US and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Mr Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

Iran and the US, under President Joe Biden, held indirect negotiations in Vienna in 2021 aimed at restoring the nuclear deal. But those talks, and others between Tehran and European nations, failed to reach any agreement.

AFP, AP