Trump Backs Off on Iran Strike, Opens Window for Diplomacy
Two-week pause opens a narrow diplomatic window as US allies scramble to defuse the Israel-Iran conflict amid fears of catastrophic escalation.
President Donald Trump is holding off on a military strike against Iran for now. In a carefully calibrated move aimed at avoiding immediate escalation, Trump has given Tehran what White House aides are calling a ‘two-week window’ to enter negotiations. Trump’s step back from his bellicose language earlier in the week follows intense behind-the-scenes consultations among allies, direct talks with Iran and rising international pressure to avert a wider Middle East war.
Trump had warned Iran to ‘immediately evacuate Tehran’ and declared he was ‘out of patience.’
The shift in tone in the latest White House statement was palpable: ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,’ White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, reading Trump’s statement.
Concerns reportedly are growing in Trump’s inner circle about Iran’s ability to strike US forces across the Middle East. Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi warned Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff that Iran could target every US base in the region with hypersonic missiles that are difficult to intercept. ‘If we can hit Israel, we can hit Kuwait, Iraq, and Qatar,’ Araghchi told the US envoy, according to The Times of London which cited an unnamed source.
Witkoff, Trump’s backchannel negotiator, is said to be in ongoing contact with Iranian officials even as more hawkish advisers gain influence over Trump’s war council. Among those shaping strategy are Vice President J.D. Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine. Notably absent from the president’s top tier: Tulsi Gabbard, the intelligence chief known for her anti-interventionist stance, and the inexpereinced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, according to reports.
On Friday, foreign ministers from the UK, France, Germany, and the EU will meet Araghchi in Geneva in a bid to stop the slide into full-scale war. ‘A window now exists within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution,’ British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said, after a meeting in Washington with Rubio and Witkoff. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed that Paris is prepared to engage in talks.
‘The situation in the Middle East remains perilous,’ Lammy warned. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Trump to resist escalation, despite the UK's deep concern over Iran’s nuclear activities.
Russia, China call for restraint
China’s President Xi Jinping has urged Israel to cease hostilities. In a call on 19 June with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Xi said ‘dialogue and negotiations’ are the only viable path forward. China's foreign ministry has condemned Israel’s attacks as a ‘violation of international law.’ Iran is a major supplier of crude oil to China.
‘Xi urged the relevant parties to firmly support a political solution to the Iranian nuclear issue, and push the issue back to the track of political solution through dialogue and negotiation,’ according to the state-run Xinhua news outlet.
Polls suggest Americans are wary of war. A Washington Post survey conducted Wednesday found a 20-point margin opposing airstrikes against Iran, with independents and Democrats especially skeptical. Republicans were split with most supporting a US strike.
The prospect of US involvement in a war against Iran has opened a rift inside Trump’s MAGA political base with opposition coming from Trump allies Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton told German broadcaster DW in an interview that Trump was in an uncomfortable position and essentially playing a waiting game. ‘He currently believes… that if he threatens the use of force, that this will finally induce the ayatollahs to be serious about negotiating. He’s wrong,’ Bolton said. ‘They’re not going to negotiate the end of the program… He’s waiting for them and they’re waiting for him.’
Diplomatic ‘off ramp’
The next two weeks could determine whether the United States is drawn into a broader war or whether a diplomatic off-ramp can still be found. If the European leaders set to meet with Iran’s foreign minister later today come up with a diplomatic solution, ‘then Trump would favour that,’ Shahram Akbarzadeh, director of the Middle East Studies Forum at Deakin University in Australia, told Al Jazeera.
‘Direct surrender is probably not on the table’ for Iran, Laura Holgate, former US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency told The New York Times. But Iran may now be reassessing the costs of continuing its nuclear ambitions in the wake of targeted Israeli strikes, she said.
Robert Litwak, a US nonproliferation specialist, said the challenge facing diplomats in Geneva will be ‘threading the needle’ by allowing Iran to save face by preserving its right to enrich uranium while at the same time forcing it to abandon its nuclear program.
Trump’s pause follows a deadly first week of conflict between Israel and Iran.
An Iranian missile struck an Israeli hospital causing injuries, while Israel says it has hit more than 100 Iranian targets, including a ballistic missile site and a uranium enrichment facility in Arak. The death toll in Iran has surpassed 639, according to human-rights monitors. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
In Gaza, meanwhile, more than 80 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Thursday including 16 killed at an aide distribution site and more than a dozen including children at a tent site.