Trump Says 'No' to New Iran Strikes After the Midterms - and a Deal 'Could Happen'
Weeks of hints about renewed attacks gave way, on Election Day eve, to a one-word answer. With Iranian negotiators in Doha for a third day and gasoline prices weighing on voters, the president talked settlement instead.
President Donald Trump raised doubts on Monday about whether he would follow through on a threatened resumption of military strikes against Iran, Reuters reported - and said a deal with Tehran could happen. In recent weeks the president had hinted about renewing attacks on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections. After his speech at the Washington Reflecting Pool on Monday, asked by reporters whether he was considering striking Iran after the midterms, he replied: 'no.'
The diplomacy behind the answer is already moving. Iranian negotiators were in Doha on Sunday for a third consecutive day of talks with Qatari mediators aimed at a deal to end the war, and Vice President JD Vance reported 'a number of good conversations with the Iranians.' 'Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement,' Vance said. 'We're going to keep on working at it.' Trump said he believed Iran wanted to make a deal and that such an agreement 'could happen' - while holding his stated bottom line: 'We're not going to allow Iran ever to have a nuclear weapon, and they understand that.'
The politics are inseparable from the policy. The Iran war is a leading cause of the high gasoline prices weighing on voters, Reuters reported, and the president is under pressure to end the conflict on the eve of an election that will decide control of Congress. Trump also insisted the operation was not actually a war, because 'we've done very little fighting' recently, after sweeping strikes months ago in which Iranian leaders were killed. 'We wiped out their leaders - first level of leaders, the second level of leaders, and they've asked us, please stop doing that, and we will,' he said. For a Pensacola community built around Naval Air Station Pensacola, the difference between a resumed air campaign and a negotiated settlement is not an abstraction - and on Monday, for the first time in weeks, the president's own word for the strikes column was 'no.'
