By Donald Trump has told NBC News that he had not been informed of Tehran’s decision to suspend talks with Washington ahead of time but that, “I think it’s fine if they’re done talking.”
“It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” he said in a brief phone call. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”
“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there,” the US president added. On Friday, he said he would soon decide on a proposed deal to extend the fragile ceasefire that has been in place since early April. “We’ll keep the blockade,” he said.
He added: “If they don’t want to talk, that’s okay with me. I think it’s fine. I don’t particularly want to talk either. We talk too much.”
Earlier, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran had said there would be no peace talks with the US until its demands on the cessation of Israeli operations in Lebanon and Gaza are met.
Tehran’s negotiating team was pulling out of message exchanges through mediators with Washington over Israel’s ongoing offensive in Lebanon, Tasnim reported.
Tasnim further reported that Iran and its proxies will look to completely block the strait of Hormuz. It said it will also look to “activate” other fronts, including the Bab el-Mandem strait, which sits off the coast of Yemen.
The Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said “unequivocal violation of the ceasefire on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts” and the US and Israel would be held responsible.
Thousands of Beirut residents fled their homes on Monday after Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Israeli military to bomb the city’s southern suburbs. The Israeli prime minister had vowed on Sunday to push even further into the country, where the IDF is already occupying large swathes of the south.
Iran’s military central command warned residents of northern Israel to leave in the event that Israel carried out such attacks on Beirut or its southern suburbs.
Originally published on www.theguardian.com — View original