President Donald Trump said on Friday he might support a ceasefire in the week-old aerial conflict between US ally Israel and its regional rival Iran “depending on the circumstances”.
Asked by reporters if he would support a ceasefire while negotiations are ongoing, Trump said: “I might, depending on the circumstances”.
Europe would not be able to help much in the war between Iran and Israel, Trump added.
“Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this one,” Trump said.
Iran’s foreign minister met with European counterparts in Geneva on Friday for talks aimed at establishing a path back to diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program.
European foreign ministers urged Iran to engage with Washington over its nuclear program, but the talks ended with few signs of progress.
“Well, I’m not going to talk about ground forces, because the last thing you want to do is ground forces,” Trump said, when asked if ground forces would be needed to defeat Iran.
The air war began on June 13 when Israel attacked Iran and has raised alarms in a region that has been on edge since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
Trump and the White House say he will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran war. Trump has kept the world guessing on his plans, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting Washington might join the fighting on Israel’s side.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons, and said it struck Iran to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, has retaliated with its own strikes on Israel. Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not.
Israel’s strikes have killed 639 people in Iran, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Israel says Iranian attacks have killed 24 civilians in Israel.
Trump meanwhile doubled down on his claims that Iran is weeks away from being able to produce a nuclear bomb, despite divisions in his own administration about the intelligence behind his assessment.
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, said in a report in March that Iran was not close to having enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.
“She’s wrong,” Trump said of Gabbard, a longtime opponent of US foreign intervention whom Trump tapped to coordinate the sprawling US spy community.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes.
Iranian foreign minister also said after the talks in Geneva that Tehran would not resume negotiations with the United States until Israel stopped its attacks.
But Trump was reluctant.
“It’s very hard to make that request right now,” Trump said.
“If somebody’s winning, it’s a little bit harder to do than if somebody’s losing, but we’re ready, willing and able, and we’ve been speaking to Iran, and we’ll see what happens.”
