Trump says Iran is acting ‘on the border’ and willing to wait days to get ‘right answer’ | Today’s news

Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that talks with Iran were on a knife’s edge, telling reporters the situation was “right on the edge” between a negotiated peace deal and a new wave of US military strikes, even as he indicated Washington was prepared to wait a few more days for Tehran to react.

Trump’s warning: ‘We’re all ready to go’

Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, Trump delivered some of his harshest words yet about the state of negotiations with Iran, leaving little ambiguity about what a break in the talks would mean.

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“It’s right on the border, believe me,” Trump said. “If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very fast. We’re all ready to go. We have to get the right answers. They would have to be a full 100% good answers.”

Asked how long he was prepared to wait, Trump suggested the window was narrow but not yet closed. “It could be a few days, but it could go very quickly.

He added that a deal would save “a lot of time, energy and lives” and could be reached “very quickly or within days”, although he offered no details on what an acceptable deal would look like.

Earlier in the day, Trump struck a similarly blunt note. “We’re in the final stages of Iran. We’ll see what happens. Either we’re going to make a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit ugly, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that. Ideally, I’d like to see a few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way,” he told reporters.

How close did the US come to striking Iran this week?

Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he was an hour away from ordering renewed strikes against Iran, a decision he said he delayed at the request of several Gulf states. The planned attack was planned for Tuesday before it was called off.

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It is the second time Trump has backed away from military escalation in recent weeks. Six weeks ago, he suspended Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli bombing campaign that began on February 28, in exchange for a cease-fire. Since then, peace talks have made little tangible progress, while soaring gasoline prices have weighed on the president’s approval ratings and put increasing political pressure on the White House to bring the conflict to an end.

Iran Responds: “Promised Regional War Will Spread Beyond Region”

Tehran has not softened its public stance in response to Trump’s warnings. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards issued a strong statement warning against any renewed military action. “If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time expand beyond the region,” the guards said.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a more measured tone, saying Tehran remained open to negotiations but drawing a firm line on coercion. “Forcing Iran to surrender through coercion is nothing but an illusion,” Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X.

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Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran is conducting negotiations “with seriousness and good faith, but has strong and reasonable suspicions about America’s performance.”

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s top peace negotiator, said in an audio message on social media that “the enemy’s overt and covert moves” showed the Americans were preparing new attacks.

Iran’s Latest Peace Offer: What Tehran Wants

Iran presented a new offer to the US this week. According to Tehran’s own description, the proposal largely repeats conditions that Trump previously rejected, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damages, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and the withdrawal of US troops from the region.

Pakistan, which has so far hosted the only formal round of peace talks, has served as the primary broker between Washington and Tehran. On Wednesday, Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran as part of the latest diplomatic push, with the two sides continuing to exchange messages through Pakistani mediation.

Trump reiterated his basic demand that Iran not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon. But six weeks of bombing have left Iran’s stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium intact, along with its ability to threaten its neighbors with missiles, drones and proxy militias.

Strait of Hormuz: Global energy reserves at stake

The core of the economic consequences of the conflict is the Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant share of the world’s oil reserves normally pass. Iran has largely closed the strait to all but its own vessels since the US-Israeli attacks began in February, causing what analysts have described as the most serious disruption to global energy supplies in history. The US responded last month by imposing its own blockade of Iranian ports.

On Wednesday, Iran released a map outlining a “controlled maritime zone” in the strait and said transit would require permission from the newly created authority. Tehran has said it intends to reopen the strait to countries it considers friendly, with conditions that could include access fees. Washington said such fees would be unacceptable.

Two large Chinese oil tankers carrying a combined cargo of around four million barrels left the strait on Wednesday. Iran announced last week, while Trump was in Beijing for a summit with President Xi Jinping, that it had agreed to ease transit rules for Chinese vessels. South Korea’s foreign minister separately confirmed that a South Korean tanker was also crossing the strait in coordination with Iran.

Shipping monitor Lloyd’s List reported that at least 54 vessels passed through the strait last week, roughly double the previous week. Iran said 26 ships crossed in the 24 hours to Wednesday, still a fraction of the 140 daily crossings recorded before the war began.

Economic pressure on Trump to end the conflict

The economic consequences of the war are beginning to create domestic political problems for the Trump administration. Rising energy prices have weighed on Republican support ahead of November’s congressional elections, and senior administration officials have been vocal about the need to end the conflict.

“Investors want to assess whether Washington and Tehran can really find common ground and reach a peace deal, with the US position changing daily,” said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that he viewed increased bond yields and headline inflation as “transient” and expected to fade after the conflict ends. “The strait will open and we will normalize energy prices,” Bessent said.

The human cost of conflict

A US-Israeli bombing campaign killed thousands in Iran before it was suspended as part of an April ceasefire. Israeli military operations have also killed thousands in Lebanon, where Israeli forces invaded in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah militias and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. Iranian attacks on Israel and neighboring Gulf states have killed dozens of people.

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the war that their goals were to limit Iran’s support for regional militias, dismantle its nuclear program, destroy its missile capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranians to remove their spiritual rulers. Six weeks after the cease-fire, none of these goals have been fully achieved, and Iran’s leadership, which suppressed a mass uprising earlier in the year, faces no visible organized opposition.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke with Trump on Wednesday, welcomed the truce extension and told the US president he believed a “reasonable solution” was possible, according to Ankara.

Whether Trump agrees will be seen in a few days.