President Donald Trump told in a brief phone call Friday morning that the United States “of course” supports Israel and called the country’s strikes on Iran overnight “a very successful attack,” while warning Iran to make a nuclear deal.
When asked about a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday that sought to put distance between the US and the Israeli action, Trump told Dana Bash: “We of course support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it.”
The president went on to urge Iran to reach a deal.
“Iran should have listened to me when I said — you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61,” he told
“They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them. You know, the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners,” the president said. He would not specify which people he was referring to.
In contrast to Trump’s aggressive tone, Rubio clarified in a statement late Thursday that the US had no involvement in the strikes.
“Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region,” Rubio said.
Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, a White House official said. He’d spoken to the prime minister several times on Thursday, including prior to Israel launching the strikes,
The source would not divulge the substance of those earlier calls but reiterated that Trump believes the attack was a result of Iran failing to strike an agreement on a new nuclear deal before his 60-day deadline expired.
White House officials continue to argue that the president is committed to salvaging the nuclear talks. The source said special envoy Steve Witkoff is “ready” to meet Iranian officials when they are – whether it be in Oman on Sunday as previously scheduled or at some date thereafter.
The president had warned Iran earlier on Friday to agree to a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left,” suggesting in a social media post that subsequent Israeli attacks on the country will be “even more brutal.”
The post marked Trump’s first public comments since Israel launched strikes on Iran targeting its nuclear program and military leaders, with the US president saying he had tried to steer Iranian leaders toward diplomacy, but they failed to act at great cost.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done,” Trump wrote.
Trump wrote that Iranian leaders “didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!”
“There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left,” Trump added.