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U.S. President Donald Trump said a renewed attack on Iran would be about "five times bigger" than the first, but that he is holding off at the request of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies who prefer maintaining the current pressure.
"In speaking with Qatar—as you know, the prime minister was in the Oval Office today—in speaking to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, basically the neighbors who were attacked pretty violently by the way ... they’d rather do it this way rather than another hit, which would be approximately five times bigger than the first hit, which basically decimated them," Trump told C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Primetime on Monday.
"So I’d like to do it this way, too, and I can tell you that Iran would like to make a deal, and we’ll find out whether or not that’ll happen," he said.
Earlier Monday, Trump told reporters in a surprise White House briefing room appearance that "Iran, militarily, is effectively over. We’re just keeping it the status quo. But if we do have to go back in, we are locked and loaded, and ready to go."
"The United States of America is fully locked and loaded with the best equipment ever made, and we don’t think there’s going to be any reason to use it,” he said, adding he was acting “at the behest of countries that are their neighbors."
He said the naval blockade would continue: "We’re keeping it going. We have the greatest military blockade ever."
On a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said further strikes were "quite unlikely" and that "we are seeing positive momentum toward an end to this Conflict."
"We won Venezuela, and we won Iran. We wiped out their navy, we wiped out their air force, we wiped out everything, their anti-aircraft; we wiped out their leaders," Trump told C-SPAN.
"They want to make a deal. They don’t say that, you know, publicly," he said, claiming Iran has "301% inflation" and has not paid its military.
"We may have to hit Pickaxe Mountain if they’re going to do something there. We don’t see that. We have the eye in the sky on it very strongly," he said.
"The bottom line is we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon, because they’d use it. I saved Israel," Trump noted.
Trump met Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who visited Tehran last week, in his first meeting with a foreign leader since the midterms.
"Grateful for the positive discussions on reaching a deal and bringing peace to the region," Sheikh Mohammed wrote on X after talks with Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Qatari officials last week presented proposals on Iran’s nuclear program, The Associated Press (AP) reported, citing two Middle East officials.
Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei said the U.S. "flails like a desperate gambler" and should "fold your hand. Stop manufacturing fake news about imaginary talks," adding it was "time to surrender to the seven conditions Iran has repeatedly set out."
Parliament Speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote that "unless Washington drops the ‘Israel First’ mindset, America and its allies are headed straight for a dark age."
Iran’s core demands include ending the U.S. blockade of its ports, lifting sanctions, unfreezing assets, compensation for war damage and ending hostilities across the region, including Israeli operations in Lebanon.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the conditions "outrageous and ridiculous" on Sunday.
UAE official Anwar Gargash said a comprehensive settlement appeared difficult.
"We should prepare for a long period of uncertainty in which neither a decisive resolution nor stable regional order can be taken for granted," he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he had told Trump that Ankara did not want a new escalation.
"Unfortunately, we see a negative shift once again. We are doing our utmost to prevent this," he said.
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