![\"Associated](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/056e7e21-e408-46df-8166-4d7c483923b8_1546533418.jpg\")
WASHINGTON \u2014<\/p>\nTrump says new talks are ‘last chance’ for Iran to forge deal and avoid escalation of US strikes<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said Monday that newly planned talks with Tehran are the \u201clast chance\u201d for Iran to forge a deal and avoid an escalation of U.S. strikes on the country.<\/p>\n
Trump, speaking at the Oval Office, said he expects negotiations that will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and create a pathway for Iran to address the United States\u2019 concerns about its nuclear program will begin in the next day or two.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first phase is the opening of the straits. The second phase will be the denuclearization,” the Republican president said. \u201cAnd that will take a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Trump has reveled in the U.S. military decimating layers of Tehran\u2019s leadership and devastating its air force and navy, Iran is betting it can outlast Trump as he faces diminished stockpiles of munitions and the difficulty of executing a war that is unpopular with the American electorate ahead of November\u2019s midterm election.<\/p>\n
Trump said he decided to hold off on ordering American forces to carry out new massive strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
He said that a plan was in place for U.S. forces to carry out \u201cthe biggest attack since World War II\u201d on Sunday. But he decided to scrap the plan and give diplomacy more time to play out after hearing from key Gulf leaders \u2014 including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman \u2014 as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials.<\/p>\n
But Trump reiterated that he\u2019s running out of patience with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the last chance for them to sign a good document,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n
Earlier Monday, Trump had criticized Iran on social media as being \u201cunbelievably duplicitous.\u201d<\/p>\n
His ire was raised by Iran claiming that its meetings with Oman on Monday were focused solely on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for the global oil trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey ask for a meeting, some would say \u2018beg,\u2019 talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they\u2019re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they\u2019re only dealing with Oman,\u201d Trump grumbled.<\/p>\n
Trump said whether \u201cIran wants to admit it or not, we are, in fact, talking\u201d about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
Critics see Trump reaching for a reset button in this pattern<\/p>\n
Trump may still come to the conclusion that a massive escalation in the conflict with Iran is necessary.<\/p>\n
But critics say his hesitation also might reflect an unspoken understanding inside the administration that U.S. military might alone may not be enough to compel Iran to back down and bring an end to a now monthslong war that Trump had earlier downplayed as a weekslong excursion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what we\u2019re seeing here is a president who has an approach that\u2019s just rather erratic,\u201d said Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, on CBS News’ \u201cFace the Nation.\u201d \u201cAt this point, he’s trying to get us back to February. And I think if he could \u2014 if he had a big reset button he could hit \u2014 he would certainly take that option.\u201d<\/p>\n
There have been several moments over the course of the conflict when Trump has demonstrated his proclivity for the bellicose only to back off at the last minute, while declaring his threats spurred progress:<\/p>\n
\u2014 In early April, the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in an announcement that came less than two hours before a deadline Trump had set for Tehran to capitulate or face attacks on bridges and power plants \u2014 strikes he said would mean \u201ca whole civilization will die.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 After days of dire threats against Iran, Trump announced on May 18 he was holding off on a major planned military strike because \u201cserious negotiations\u201d were underway, crediting Gulf allies for persuading him to show restraint.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Then in June, Trump threatened to hit Iran \u201cVERY HARD\u201d and seize Iran\u2019s energy base on Kharg Island to “assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets,\u201d he wrote on social media, only to call off the strikes in a later post after claiming that peace negotiations had progressed with high-level Iranian leaders.<\/p>\n
Left unsaid by the president was that such an endeavor would require U.S. troops on the ground in Iran \u2014 a risky proposition politically for a president who campaigned on avoiding foreign entanglements and criticized past administrations for getting bogged down in endless wars.<\/p>\n
Call with Saudi crown prince affected Trump’s decision<\/p>\n
With this latest episode, Trump suggested that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a particularly important role in him turning away from escalating the fight.<\/p>\n
The U.S. president spoke by phone with the de facto leader of the kingdom on Saturday before announcing he was halting strikes that he later boasted would have been one of the biggest U.S. operations since World War II.<\/p>\n
The crown prince conveyed that an escalation in fighting could have a severe impact on the global economy if Tehran responded to a new U.S. bombardment by targeting some of the United States\u2019 Gulf allies, according to a person briefed on the call who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.<\/p>\n
Saudi officials, the person added, have underscored in their engagements with the Trump administration that the kingdom is in a good position to defend itself against further potential Iranian strikes \u2014 as are fellow energy titans Qatar and the United Arab Emirates \u2014 but that Kuwait could be more vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.<\/p>\n
As Trump threatens escalation, Republicans face tough polling<\/p>\n
Trump has insisted that November\u2019s midterm elections aren’t shaping his approach to the conflict that\u2019s spurred unease across the global economy.<\/p>\n
But it’s certainly on the minds of his fellow Republicans.<\/p>\n
About two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran, which began Feb. 28, has not been worthwhile, according to polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published last week. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as about 37% of Republicans.<\/p>\n
One of Trump’s most outspoken allies on Capitol Hill suggested on Sunday the administration needs to modulate its approach on Iran.<\/p>\n
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said on NBC’s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that the debate in Washington has lost perspective on the devastation the U.S. military has inflicted on Iran since the start of the war.<\/p>\n
Still, the Republican lawmaker acknowledged that further escalating the conflict could lead to a further surge in already elevated energy prices and \u201ca lot of inflation for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kennedy made the case that tightening sanctions and targeting Iran’s nuclear program \u2014 rather than escalating the conflict \u2014 might be the best bet for the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all hellish choices,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cBut for the moment I\u2019d maintain the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump says new talks are ‘last chance’ for Iran to forge deal and avoid escalation of US strikes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[3065,65854,989,266,16997,34,47901,5715,6415,3122,5887,1287,271,509,50,7732,101,69,392,18618,272],"class_list":["post-234470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-ceasefire","tag-denuclearization","tag-diplomacy","tag-global-economy","tag-gulf-allies","tag-iran","tag-midterm-election","tag-military-escalation","tag-mohammed-bin-salman","tag-nuclear-deal","tag-oil-markets","tag-polling","tag-qatar","tag-sanctions","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shnd","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-tehran","tag-trump","tag-u-s-strikes","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117033181280400779","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}