President Donald Trump has instructed members of his team to try to meet with Iranian officials as soon as possible, according to people familiar with the matter and US officials.
Since Israel launched its first wave of missiles last week, the president has publicly maintained that Iran should come to the table to make deals with the US, urging his team to open a line of communication between Iranians and Iranian intermediaries.
In a conversation with European leaders at Canada’s G7 Summit, Trump told his counterparts that debate is underway to win a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, indicating that he hopes to meet his Iranian counterpart this week.
US officials told CNN that although nothing has been set up, Israel and Iran are moving in the right direction. Trump admitted that Iranians had kept in touch through intermediaries early on Monday.
He was not very open about what his plans were if those diplomatic efforts were inadequate, such as whether or not they would deploy US military assets to join Israel to try to demolish Iran’s nuclear facilities.
On Monday evening, the White House claimed that the US had not joined Israel when it attacked Iran.
“The US military maintains their defensive attitude, and that hasn’t changed. We defend America’s interests,” White House spokesman Alex Pfeiffer wrote to X:
