President Donald Trump said the United States was still “committed to a Diplomatic Resolution to the Iran Nuclear Issue!” on Truth Social Thursday evening. Twelve hours later, early Friday morning, after Israeli strikes in Iran, he posted again.
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to ‘just do it,’ but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come - And they know how to use it. Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse!”
The United States’ role and future involvement in Israel’s conflict with Iran is now one of the biggest questions facing Trump’s administration. In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also acting as the White House’s national security adviser, said in a statement the U.S. was “not involved in strikes against Iran,” and that the actions by Israel were “unilateral.”
The United States was warning about the possibility of strikes in the lead-up.
“Heads-up? It wasn’t a heads-up. It was, we know what’s going on,” Trump told The Wall Street Journal Friday.
Early Friday morning, Trump posted again, this time signaling that he wants to return to diplomatic talks: “Two months ago I gave Iran a 60 day ultimatum to ‘make a deal.’ They should have done it! Today is day 61. I told them what to do, but they just couldn’t get there. Now they have, perhaps, a second chance!”
Iran may not be interested. International news outlets report that Iran has announced that it will withdraw from the next round of talks with the U.S. in Oman. According to Rubio, Israel informed the White House of the impending strike, saying that it was “necessary for its self-defense,” according to the statement.
The White House did not appear to share any additional information with the Senate Armed Services Committee or the Senate Intelligence Committee. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday said they had not been briefed on the risks of conflict.
“There are indications from us that they’re concerned about escalation there in that region. That’s all we know about right now,” Sen. Mike Rounds told NOTUS Thursday afternoon, before the attack. “I have not had any other reports, other than what I see in the press.”
Rounds sits on both committees. Another senator confirmed to NOTUS that the Armed Services Committee had not received a briefing in the past week on the situation in Iran.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.