Trump: ‘Hard’ for Israel to Stop Strikes Now

A week into the intense conflict between the U.S. and Iran and two weeks out from the president’s decision on U.S. involvement, President Trump said Friday it would be difficult for Israel to stop strikes on Iran at this point.

This from thehill.com.

When pressed about the Iranian foreign minister saying the U.S. would call on Israel to stop airstrikes if Trump is serious about negotiations, he said:

I think it’s very hard to make that request right now.

If somebody is winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody is losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens.

The president also said he might support a ceasefire but continued:

[I]t’s very hard to stop when you look at it—Israel’s doing well in terms of war, and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well.

As of Thursday, correspondence between the U.S. and Iran “has continued,” according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who did not provide specifics about whether communications were direct or through intermediaries.

[President] Trump will make a decision in the next two weeks [on whether to intervene in Israel’s conflict with Iran].

Trump on Friday described the two-week timeline as the maximum he would give to Iran.

He said:

We’re going to see what that period of time is, but I’m giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum.

Additionally, he was asked if an aerial campaign in Iran would be enough or if ground forces would be necessary if the U.S. were to get involved. The president pushed back on the idea of boots on the ground.

He said:

Well, I’m not going to talk about ground forces. The last thing you want to do is ground force.