Iran-US war: Better get serious before it's too late, says Trump

DUBAI/TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Thursday to "get serious" about a deal to end nearly four weeks of fighting.

Trump's comments came as the economic and humanitarian toll of the conflict mounted, with fuel shortages spreading worldwide, sending companies and countries scrambling to contain the fallout.

"The Iranian negotiators are very different and strange. They are begging us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only 'looking at our proposal.' WRONG!!! They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won't be pretty!," the US President wrote on Truth Social.


Later in the day, Trump said that Iran was letting 10 oil tankers transit the Strait of Hormuz as an apparent goodwill gesture in negotiations. Trump made the comments at a Cabinet meeting in the White House.

Also Read: From oil shock to algo shock: Iran war is shaking AI industry

"They said, to show you the fact that we're real and solid and we're there, we're going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil," Trump said. "I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they were Pakistani-flagged... It ended up being 10 boats."

Trump described the Iranians as "great negotiators" but added that he was not sure he was willing to make a deal with them to end the war. "They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward. We'll see if they want to do it. If they don't, we're their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away."

Also Read: Trump signals desire for swift end to Iran war as diplomacy and pressure continue

Asked whether he's sticking to a five-day delay he announced on Monday, Trump said "I don't know."

The President said it depends on whether his team tells him talks with Iran are "going along" or not.

"We have a lot of time," Trump said. "It's a day. In Trump time, a day- you know what it is? That's an eternity."

Trump also said that NATO countries had done "absolutely nothing" to help with Iran. "NATO nations have done absolutely nothing to help with the lunatic nation, now militarily decimated, of Iran. the USA needs nothing from Nato, but 'never forget' this very important point in time!"

On Thursday, Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel, triggering air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and other areas and injuring at least five people.

In Iran, strikes hit a residential zone in the southern city of Bandar Abbas and a village on the outskirts of the southern city of Shiraz, where two teenage brothers were killed, Iran's Tasnim news agency said.

A university building in Isfahan was also hit.

Two Killed in Abu Dhabi
At least two persons were killed and three others injured when debris of missiles intercepted by the UAE's air defence system fell on a street in Abu Dhabi, local media reported.