Report: Trump, Netanyahu speak as US weighs renewed Iran strikes
Call comes amid Qatari mediation efforts and Iranian threats of wider retaliation if fighting resumes
US President Donald Trump spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by telephone Saturday as Washington weighed renewed military action against Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the call.
The conversation followed a White House meeting earlier in the week at which Trump consulted senior military commanders on options for restarting major combat operations, according to the newspaper.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Trump had not decided whether to launch fresh strikes and preferred a diplomatic solution. Speaking after a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Rubio said direct and indirect contacts with Tehran were continuing, but declined to give a timetable for an agreement.
“We can achieve military objectives if we seek to. He hasn’t made a decision,” Rubio said. He added that any diplomatic settlement would have to address Washington’s core security concerns, including preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, meanwhile said Tehran was debating whether to maintain its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons if hostilities resumed. He stressed that no formal decision had been taken to change Iran’s nuclear doctrine, and said nuclear negotiations could begin only after Washington accepted Tehran’s demands.
Earlier Saturday, a statement attributed to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered military commanders to prepare an immediate response to any new attack, without geographical restrictions, and to expand their list of potential US and Israeli targets.
The exchanges came as Iranian negotiators met Qatari mediators in Doha following more than 12 hours of discussions in Tehran on Friday, Reuters reported, citing a source briefed on the negotiations.