The U.S. and Israel kicked off a 39-day bombing campaign against Iran on Feb. 28 during which over 13,000 targets were hit, including the upper crust of the regime in Tehran. While the U.S. and Iran agreed in early April to a ceasefire, it has been strained in recent days and weeks by violent exchanges between the warring parties.
While admittedly not in a rush to strike a deal to end the war in time for the midterms, President Donald Trump nevertheless expressed optimism early Monday that "Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us."
Hours later — and after U.S. Central Command announced that a pair of Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces in Kuwait had been intercepted — Iranian state media reportedly announced that Tehran has suspended peace talks with the United States, citing as cause Israel's offensive in Lebanon and escalations in Beirut.
'I don't particularly want to talk either.'
Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a statement before his nation's state media threw cold water on the peace talks that "the ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon. Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation."
Following the news of the initial ceasefire in April, the Israel Defense Forces announced that the Israeli military had "ceased fire in the operation against Iran" but was "continuing to conduct targeted ground operations against Hezbollah" in Lebanon, where the IDF already had a significant troop presence.
In the months since, Israeli forces have expanded their occupation of the south of the country — going well beyond the Litani River — and claimed significant gains over Hezbollah militants.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he ordered attacks on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
Mohsen Rezaei, an Iranian politician who served as military adviser to the late Ali Khamenei, said on Monday, "The Strait of Hormuz is under Iran's management. We will not allow the continuation of the maritime blockade, and the escalation of tensions in Lebanon will not be tolerated either. The patience of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran has its limits."
Tasnim, the semi-official state news agency that is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, subsequently reported that "the Iranian negotiating team will suspend 'talks and the exchange of texts through mediators.'"
The agency also claimed that Iran and its allies would "activate other fronts, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait" at the entrance of the Red Sea.
Trump told NBC News' Garrett Haake, "I think it's fine if they're done talking."
"It's an appropriate thing to say, because they're better negotiators than they are fighters," the president said. "But they haven’t informed us of that."
Trump noted that the apparent suspension of talks "doesn't mean we're going to go and start dropping bombs all over there" but that the U.S. will "keep the blockade. Blockade is a piece of steel."
"If they don't want to talk, that’s okay with me. I think it's fine. I don't particularly want to talk either. We talk too much," Trump added.
In an apparent effort to rescue the peace talks from total collapse, Trump announced around 1:30 p.m. on Monday that after speaking to Netanyahu, "there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back."
The president also said Hezbollah had agreed not to attack Israel.
Tump said in a Truth Social post just minutes later that "talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran."
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President Donald Trump is publicly weighing his options to pressure Iran's new regime into making a deal to end hostilities.
As the conflict enters the fourth week, Trump reassured the America people that the United States is in the midst of "serious discussions" with Iran's new, "more reasonable" regime to end the war. Although Trump said great progress has been made, he also threatened to obliterate key Iranian infrastructure if the conflict is not resolved in the near future.
'This will be in retribution for our many soldiers.'
"The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran," Trump said in a Truth Social post Monday.
"Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately 'Open for Business,' we will conclude our lovely 'stay' in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet 'touched.'"
RELATED: 'TOTAL RESOLUTION': Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks
As Trump noted, the United States has refrained from striking these facilities after the president first announced the negotiations last week. Trump originally gave the Iranians a five-day window to strike a deal but later extended it by an additional 10 days.
If the strikes were to take place, Trump said they would be in "retribution" for the hundreds of Americans who have died at the hands of the Iranian regime.
"This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime's 47 year 'Reign of Terror,'" Trump said.
RELATED: Trump offers unique insight into Iran's 'strange' negotiations: 'It won't be pretty!'
Secretary of State Marco Rubio came short of naming these new negotiators, saying it would probably "get them in trouble."
"I'm not going to disclose to you who those people are because it would probably get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside Iran," Rubio told ABC News. "Look, there's some fractures going on there internally. And at the end of the day, I think that if there are people in Iran who now, given everything that's happened, are willing to move in a different direction for their country, that would be great."
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'Anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation that country is in,' Vance said.
"China needs crude. We have it. It will cost them more than they have been paying. But they have to get it somewhere."
President Donald Trump did something Tuesday that he has done repeatedly over the course of his political career: He issued a dramatic warning ahead of negotiations. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump said Tuesday morning on Truth Social […]
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