President Donald Trump rejected reports suggesting he had blocked Israel from launching strikes on Iran’s nuclear program. In an interview with TIME magazine on Friday, he dismissed the claim, saying, “That’s not right.”
Pressed to elaborate, Trump clarified, “No, it’s not right. I didn’t stop them [Israel]. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, because I think we can make a deal without the attack. I hope we can. It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, but I didn’t say no. Ultimately, I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”
During the interview, TIME asked Trump whether he would be open to direct engagement with Iranian leadership. Trump answered plainly, “Sure.”
He also predicted that Saudi Arabia would join the Abraham Accords, stating, “that will happen,” and expressing confidence in further expanding the normalization deals with Arab nations.
The article highlighted Trump’s pride in pushing NATO allies to boost defense spending and his role in advancing peace efforts between Israel and Arab states during his first administration.
Asked whether he feared Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu might pull the U.S. into a war with Iran, Trump responded without hesitation: “No.”
In an unrelated case, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Ph.D. candidate at Tufts University, was detained by ICE on March 25 as she headed to an Iftar event. She was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana, and her request for bond was denied. Authorities have not formally accused her of a crime or produced proof linking her to Hamas.
According to a Department of Homeland Security source, Ozturk’s detention stemmed in part from an op-ed she co-authored that criticized Israeli actions in Gaza. When asked about the situation, Trump said he hadn’t heard about the case but would be open to reviewing any supporting evidence.
Separately, a Republican member of Congress who recently traveled to Syria informed The Jerusalem Post that Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa may also be willing to pursue normalization with Israel.
{Matzav.com}
