Trump: Israel won’t drag us into war with Iran, but we’ll lead the pack if no deal made
US president says willing to meet with Iran’s supreme leader, predicts Saudi-Israeli normalization and that Riyadh will ‘very quickly’ join Abraham Accords
US President Donald Trump said he would not be dragged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into war with Iran, but vowed Washington could instead “be leading the pack” if diplomacy were to fail and joint US-Israeli military action is necessary to thwart Tehran’s nuclear program.
The US president, who reiterated his hope that the issue could be resolved through negotiations, also expressed openness to meeting with the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader or president.
Trump made the comments on Monday in a wide-ranging Time Magazine interview published Friday, a day before his special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were set to arrive in Oman for the third round of nuclear talks in as many weeks.
During the interview, Trump predicted Saudi Arabia would “very quickly” normalize relations with Israel, and blamed Gaza’s recent death toll on his predecessor Joe Biden because “he took off all the sanctions” on Iran, enabling it to finance the Palestinian terror group Hamas.
The interview also saw Trump say Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “understands” that the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, would stay with Russia as part of a potential agreement between the two countries. The comment was published shortly before Witkoff was set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin as part of the Ukraine-Russia truce talks.
In addition, Trump said his administration has reached 200 still-unannounced trade deals, as countries around the world seek to counteract the punishing tariffs he announced earlier this month.
Asked by Time about reports that he recently quashed Israeli proposals for a series of joint strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, Trump acknowledged that while he didn’t block Israel’s plans outright, he “didn’t make it comfortable” for them to proceed.
“I think we can make a deal without the attack. I hope we can,” Trump told Time, acknowledging, as he has throughout the process of bringing Iran to the table for nuclear talks, that military action may be required down the line.
“I didn’t make it comfortable for them, but I didn’t say no,” Trump repeated. “Ultimately, I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”
Asked if he was worried about being “dragged in” to a war with Iran by Netanyahu, Trump said the Israeli leader “may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in.”
Asked again if that meant the US would sit out an Israeli attack on Iran, Trump clarified that was not the case.
“You asked if he’d drag me in, like I’d go in unwillingly. No, I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack,” said Trump.
The US president said talks with Iran so far have made “very good progress.” Asked if he was open to meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”
Trump, who in 2018 pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, has warned of military action against Iran unless a new deal is swiftly reached to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program, and just a short technical step away from weapons-grade material.
Israel is said to be deeply concerned that the US is closing in on a “bad deal” with Iran that will not meet Jerusalem’s stated essential conditions for ensuring the regime cannot attain nuclear weapons. Channel 12 news reported that Israel believes the negotiations are “very, very advanced,” and that the US is not sharing enough information with Israel on key specific issues.
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, also backs a regional network of terror proxies including Gaza’s Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Israel has been at war with all three following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Speaking to Time, Trump accused Biden of enabling Iran to build up its so-called Axis of Resistance by softening sanctions that the US had imposed on Tehran during Trump’s first term.
Asked whom he blamed for the over 1,000 deaths in Gaza since Israel renewed hostilities there last month, Trump said: “I blame the Biden administration, because they allowed Iran to get back into the game without working a deal.”
“There was no money for Hamas. There was no money for Hezbollah,” said Trump. “When Biden came and he took off all the sanctions… they started funding terror again, including Hamas,” Trump claimed.
Trump also accused the Biden administration of halting the “tremendous success” of the Abraham Accords, the series of normalization agreements that the first Trump White House brokered between Israel, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates.
“They did nothing with the Abraham Accords,” said Trump of Biden’s administration. “We had four countries in there, it was all set. We would have had it packed. Now we’re going to start it again,” he said.
Trump, who is set to visit Riyadh next month, told Time he believes Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords, adding: “I think it will be full very quickly.”
Saudi-Israeli normalization had appeared to be nearing ahead of the Hamas onslaught, with two Israeli ministers having made unprecedented visits to the desert kingdom. However, normalization efforts faltered amid the ensuing war.
Trump said the reason he was pursuing normalization “is because Saudi Arabia, I happen to like the people very much, and the Crown Prince and the King — I like all of them, but they’ve agreed to invest a trillion dollars in our economy.”
“I’m then going to Qatar, and I’m then going to the United Arab Emirates,” said Trump.
Trump’s visit to the Middle East will be the second foreign trip of his second term — the first being Friday’s last-minute trip to the Vatican for Pope Francis’s funeral.
Nava Freiberg contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.