US forces hit Iran as peace talks continue
U.S. forces struck sites in southern Iran on Monday night, while Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei warned Gulf states that they will no longer be a safe haven for American bases.
Israeli forces are also stepping up their attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, further complicating the U.S.-Iranian talks.
With progress apparently being made in the opening round of discussions, President Donald Trump on Monday pressed leading Arab nations to join the Abraham Accords, the 2020 agreement that formalized relations between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.
Other countries have since signed the accords, including Morocco, Sudan and Kazakhstan. But Trump wants to make it “mandatory” for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar and Jordan to sign on if they want to be part of any peace deal with Iran.
“It may be possible that one or two have a reason for not doing so, and that will be accepted, but most should be ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, be,” Trump said Monday on Truth Social.
“It should start with the immediate signing by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and everybody else should follow suit. If they don’t, they should not be part of this [Iran] Deal in that it shows bad intention,” Trump added.
On Iran, Trump said that “negotiations are proceeding nicely,” yet cautioned that U.S. officials won’t sign onto any agreement that falls short of American objectives.
“It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!” Trump stated.
Hill angst. Senate Republicans are warning they will oppose any agreement that doesn’t fully rein in Iran’s nuclear program or simply restores the pre-war status quo. GOP hawks believe that a failure to do so in conjunction with other elements of the emerging agreement — reopening the Strait of Hormuz and lifting some U.S. sanctions — would look too much like former President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear accord with Iran.
At the time, every GOP senator voted against that agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also strongly opposed the Obama nuclear deal.
As we reported on Sunday, the White House is trying to pre-spin a potential agreement, asking GOP lawmakers over the weekend to tweet in support of the administration’s efforts.
Yet the broader picture in the Middle East is looking increasingly fraught even before the renewed U.S. attacks on Iran. Israel began hitting what it said were Hezbollah military sites across Lebanon on Monday.
Netanyahu released a Hebrew-language video Monday saying that he told the Israeli Defense Forces to “press the pedal even harder” against Lebanon. Here’s Netanyahu:
“We will strike them. Yes, they are firing drones at us, fiber-optic drones. We have a special team working on it, and we will solve that too.
In the meantime, you are showing resilience. I want to salute the residents of the north, whose resilience inspires us all. But what this requires of us now is to intensify the blows, to increase the force. We will strike them hard and decisively.”
Iran has been consistent in that it views the end of the war between Israel and Hezbollah as a key piece to any Iran agreement.
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