Trump Tells Israelis War with Iran Is No Option, Seeks Negotiated Deal
July 1—The Israelis sent a delegation to Washington yesterday to meet with Trump Administration officials in advance of a proposed meeting next week between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu. That meeting will now take place next Monday, White House officials confirmed.
Whatever else they might have been seeking, sources report that the delegation—headed by Bibi confidant and Strategic Minister Ron Dermer—was told by Trump, through meeting with his representatives that included Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the President considers the war with Iran not in some "ceasefire" but over and a "done deal." Whatever the final outcome of damage assessments to Iran's nuclear facilities, he considers their nuclear weapons program permanently "off the table" and believes Iran has neither the money nor the inclination to rebuild it. Trump reportedly added that the Iranian people do not want a bomb and will not support a government that puts them at risk by trying to build one.
Instead, sources report, Trump told the Israelis—as he said last week—that further military actions by the United States are not being considered. He has called for an effort to bring Iran back to the table and to work toward a negotiated deal that will be beneficial to Iran, which he said must find leadership capable of accepting such a deal. Those efforts, which sources report have included both direct and indirect communications with the Iranians, have been mediated by the Qataris. The Iranians, it is reported, seek an assurance from Trump that he has not further plans to attack them, which sources close to the White House say he willing to give, but with the proviso that he cannot speak for the Israeli government of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
Gaza Pressure and Humanitarian Expectations
(On other matters, the Israelis were told that Trump intends to ensure that Bibi lives up to the promise reportedly made to him in a phone call: that he will end the war in Gaza in the next two weeks, allow for a deal to return hostages dead and alive, enable the free flow and distribution of humanitarian aid, and see Israel withdraw its military.
(Sources report that new talks for a Gaza deal—which had been entirely blocked by Netanyahu—could restart soon and that Trump's Special Envoy Witkoff is producing a new modified peace agreement that Hamas could accept.)
Iran’s Setbacks and Internal Turmoil
A source with decades of experience in the region believes Iran will return to negotiations once the dust settles from a leadership struggle triggered by the war. While Iran managed to inflict serious damage on Israel with missile strikes, it suffered even greater losses—not just from bombed nuclear facilities, but by being shown as utterly defenseless against air attacks.
The source noted that there is clear evidence of Israel’s extensive network of spies and collaborators, enabling operations from Iranian soil, including the targeted assassinations of top military leaders and nuclear and other scientists. This has led to purges within both the military and the Revolutionary Guard, including the liquidation of hundreds of secondary leaders and a crackdown throughout the country on suspected collaborators and dissidents, especially in Kurdish areas. All of this amounts to a slow-moving regime change, not under the control of either the Israelis or U.S. intelligence.
The U.S. has information, the source reported, that a faction of younger leaders of the Revolutionary Guard may have attempted a coup against the old guard leadership, several of whom were killed by the Israelis, and which is closely tied to the old Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The source said that the coup plans were discovered and several hundred of its leaders were "eliminated."
Rebuilding Trust and Looking Ahead
The traditional Islamic period of mourning for the several hundred civilian dead and assassinated leaders will last well into this month. The source said he does not expect negotiations to begin until after this period. He reported that Trump will need to take steps to restore Iranian trust in him after betraying it—first by greenlighting the Israeli attack on June 13 while backing a new round of negotiations scheduled to begin two days later, and again by authorizing the B-2 bomber strike with bunker buster bombs while publicly claiming he would take two weeks to decide on a response. This trust building, the source said, will need to go beyond giving sanction relief, but would likely eventually involve a pledge to cease future military actions against Iran.
"Those moves attacking Iran were stupid and not necessary, despite what Trump might now say and think," said the source. "His own intelligence agencies actually know there was no change in Iranian efforts to build a bomb—there is no such active program and nothing had changed. Bibi handed him specious reports from supposed sources inside the Iranian program that contradicted the hard intelligence. The larger reality is that the President did not want to refuse Bibi because of the feared response from the insane members of the Zionist lobby inside his own party, who would have withdrawn support for his budget bill. The tough guy Trump was simply not tough enough to put domestic politics aside here."
"If I were Trump and his negotiator Witkoff, I would keep channels and discussion open in the background, working with the Qataris and cease making threatening statements to Iran," said the source. "Give it some time and space and also go back to working on a carrot for Iran to help restart the talks. He had been talking about immediate sanctions relief on oil and natural gas sales. Offer Tehran that, and they will return to the table. They really have no choice-- the Russians want them to negotiate. And unless they do that, the Russians are not going to help them rebuild their air defense systems."
"I think Trump and Witkoff understand that only a negotiated deal ends Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions for good," the source continued. "You can't do it militarily, as they have too many options and too many scientists and engineers who could build a bomb. But let me be clear about this: the Iranian people don't want or need a bomb. But they desperately want a civilian nuclear program to provide them with power and they will need non weapons grade enriched uranium for that program. The power goes off in parts of the country several hours a day. That's intolerable for an advanced nation like Iran, whose people are desperate to end their economic and physical isolation. The Mullahs have failed them miserably on these matters. But there is really nothing to replace the Mullahs, and they don't want civil war. Bibi does, because he is not so much interested in the non-existent nuclear weapons program as in completely destroying Iran as a nation. So, if the reports are true that Trump has told the Israelis the war is over—period—that is good news for the region and the world."