President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.
Following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire,initial U.S.-Iran talksin Pakistan in April failed to reach a peace deal.
Trump later announced the open-ended extension of the ceasefire and the continuation of a U.S. blockade until negotiations are concluded "one way or the other."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told a press conference on Monday that Tehran is "serious" about ongoing negotiations to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, and after President Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed Tehran's latest proposal as "totally unacceptable.""Diplomatic processes have their own rules, and parties to any negotiation must decide based on their national interests," Baghaei said, as quoted by the semi-official Mehr News Agency."The Islamic Republic of Iran has shown it is serious in pursuing its national interests and legitimate rights, while at the same time participating in diplomatic processes with good faith and reason," he added.Rather, Baghaei said, it is the U.S. that still needs to prove its commitment to a diplomatic process, citing the U.S. withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal in 2018 and its previous launching of military action despite ongoing talks."We fight whenever necessary, and we use the weapon of diplomacy whenever we deem it right," Baghaei said.
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday conducted strikes throughout the day on several areas in southern Lebanon, which they said targeted Hezbollah infrastructure."Throughout the day (Sunday), the IDF struck in several areas in southern Lebanon, more than 20 terror infrastructure, including weapon storage facilities, headquarters, and military used structures from which Hezbollah terrorists operated," the IDF said in a statement.The strikes come as more talks are scheduled between Israel and Lebanon and Washington later this week.The Lebanese Ministry of Health released an updated death toll from Israeli strikes, with over 2,800 killed and nearly 8,700 wounded.
Advertisement
In a social media post on Sunday, President Donald Trump called Iran's latest response to a deal to end the war "TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.""I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called 'Representatives.' I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! Thank you for your attention to this matter," Trump wrote on Truth Social.His response comes after Iranian state media reported on Sunday that Tehran had sent its response to the U.S.-proposed text outlining a possible end to the ongoing war.Iran's response was sent via Pakistani mediators, according to state media.
President Donald Trump on Sunday again touted his administration's operations in Iran but wouldn't go as far as to say that combat was over.Appearing on "Full Measure," Trump said of seizing Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium, "Well, we'll get that at some point. Whatever we want. We have it surveilled.""We have that very well surveilled. If anybody got near the place, we will know about it, and we'll blow him up. We'll blow them up," he added.
Trump was also asked if he believes that combat operations were concluded. "No, I didn't say that. I said they are -- they are defeated, but that doesn't mean they're done. We could go in for two more weeks and do every single target," Trump said."We have certain targets that we wanted, and we've done probably 70% of them, but we have other targets that we could conceivably hit. But even if we didn't do that, that would just be final touches. But even if we didn't do that, it would take them many years to rebuild," the president said.
Trump admitted that Iranian negotiators were a tough group to work with but maintained his argument that their nuclear capabilities have been severely weakened and that the U.S. would eventually seize Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium."It's very interesting because, you know, they make a deal and then they break it. Then they make a deal, they break it. It's a difficult group, but from a military standpoint, I mean, if we left, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild," Trump said.-ABC News' Lalee Ibssa
Click here to read the rest of the blog.
