Today NZT, Trump continued to hold out the possibility that the US might join Israel’s war against Iran.
“Nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he said.
Even as they traded threats, US and Iranian officials sent conflicting signals about their willingness to engage in diplomacy.
Trump said the Iranians had reached out to him and that the two sides might meet, though he did not provide details.
While he castigated the Iranians for not agreeing sooner to a deal to limit their nuclear programme, he told reporters on the White House lawn that “nothing’s too late”.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations appeared to dismiss the possibility of talks with the US. “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” it said.
“Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance,” the mission said in a statement on social media, calling Trump’s threat against the country’s Supreme Leader “cowardly”.
But a senior official from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorised to speak publicly, said that Iran would be open to meeting with US negotiators.
The official said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would accept such a meeting to discuss a ceasefire with Israel.
Two planes belonging to the Iranian Government landed in Oman after leaving Iranian airspace, according to FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service.
A third plane, owned by Meraj Airlines, an Iranian company, also landed in Oman. Oman regularly mediates between Iran and the US during times of tension. It was not known who was on the planes.
Gideon Saar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, told reporters that “no negotiations” were taking place with Iran, and that Israel’s military campaign would continue “until we will achieve our goals”.
Trump, who has promised to keep the US out of foreign wars, had been trying to negotiate a deal with the Iranians to curtail its nuclear programme when Israel began bombing Iran on Friday. Iran then put those talks on hold.
Since then, Israeli forces have carried out round after round of airstrikes, killing at least 11 senior Iranian military commanders and several Iranian nuclear scientists, damaging nuclear enrichment sites, missile launchers and some energy infrastructure.
Israel says it is determined to continue attacking Iran to eliminate the threat from its missiles and to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb, which it says would threaten Israel’s survival.
Iran has responded by firing missiles and drones at Israel, including a new round of about 30 ballistic missiles that were launched in two barrages after midnight local time and two waves of drones.
Most of the missiles and all the drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defences, Israeli officials said. There were no immediate reports of casualties, and Iran’s missile salvos appeared to be limited, compared with earlier attacks.
Israel’s military said today that more than 50 of its warplanes had hit targets in the Iranian capital, Tehran, including a nuclear centrifuge plant.
Iranian authorities did not immediately comment on the claim, although the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that two centrifuge plants had been hit.
One building was struck at the Tehran Research Centre, where advanced rotors for devices used to enrich uranium have been manufactured and tested, the IAEA said. Two buildings were destroyed at a workshop in Karaj, northwest of Tehran, where other components were manufactured, it said.
After those strikes, the Israeli military said that more military jets were flying over western Iran, targeting Iranian operatives it says were trying to collect munitions from sites that Israel had previously struck.
In a videotaped statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Israelis, who have been running into bomb shelters over the past several days, for their “steadfast spirit”. He also thanked Trump.
“I thank him for standing by our side, and I thank him for the support that the US is providing us in defending the skies of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “We talk continuously, including last night. We had a very warm conversation.”
Some American diplomats have begun leaving Israel amid the war. Mike Huckabee, the American Ambassador to Israel, issued an “urgent notice” to American citizens hoping to leave Israel, informing them that the US Embassy in Jerusalem was working to evacuate them on planes and cruise ships.
Despite the danger from Iran’s ballistic missiles, morale among Israelis appeared to be soaring, with many expressing support for the war.
“There is unity from wall to wall in Israel over the campaign to remove the Iranian nuclear threat,” Matan Kahana, a centrist lawmaker and former fighter pilot who is part of the opposition to Netanyahu, said in an interview. “Now people are asking, ‘Why didn’t we do it earlier?’”
In Iran, the Israeli strikes have spurred thousands to flee Tehran.
Asad, an engineer from Tehran in his 20s, who asked to use only his nickname for security reasons, said in text messages that many residents who had not left were huddling in their homes, and that the city felt “deserted”.
Shops have closed and security forces have been enforcing checkpoints on the streets, he said.
Although he does not know anyone who had been hurt in Israeli airstrikes, Asad said, a friend’s windows were shattered in a blast.
The danger, he said, “keeps getting closer and closer”.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Matthew Mpoke Bigg, Natan Odenheimer and Michael Levenson
©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
