U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday the Tuesday deadline he has set for Iran to make a deal is final, adding that Iran’s proposal was significant but not good enough.
“They made a proposal, and it’s a significant proposal. It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” Trump said of Iran.
“It could end very quickly, the war, if they do what they have to do. They have to do certain things. They know that, they’ve been negotiating I think in good faith,” he said while at an annual White House Easter event.
President Donald Trump also claimed that he used foul language in his Truth Social post threatening Iran on Easter Sunday “only to make my point.”
Trump posted that morning, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the ******’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
A reporter asked at today’s White House Easter Egg Roll why he had used the vulgar language, and Trump responded: “Only to make my point, I think you’ve heard it before.”
Donald Trump also doubled down on his threats against Iran today, saying he had even “worse” options than his previous threats to bomb the nation’s power plants and bridges if Tehran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“They’ll have no bridges, they’ll have no power plants, they’ll have no anything. I won’t go further because there are other things that are worse than those two,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn during the White House Easter Egg Roll.
The president has set a deadline of Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST for Iran to agree to a deal.
A last-ditch plan calling for a temporary 45-day ceasefire was sent to the US and Iran late Sunday as an effort to stave off massive strikes on Iranian plants and other infrastructure.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the Iranian people “will fight back” against the country’s regime if they can get weapons.
“The Iranian people will fight back as soon as they know they’re not going to be shot and as soon as they can get weapons,” Trump said.
The US president, who spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the White House Easter Egg Roll, added that in his view, if the Iranian people had weapons, “Iran would give up in two seconds because they wouldn’t be able to take it.”
Trump said that the Iranian people “want to hear bombs because they want to be free.”
“We’re fighting for them. We’re fighting for their future, and I will tell you, it was given to me loud and clear — the time the Iranian people are the most unhappy … is when those bombs stop,” he said.
President Donald Trump added that the Vice President “could be” involved in an in-person meeting to negotiate an end to the Iran war when reporters asked about the possibility.
The president confirmed that Vice President JD Vance, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are speaking with intermediary countries about the Iran war.
“They’re all unified and they’re all talking together,” Trump told reporters at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
CNN reported earlier on Monday that Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey have all been acting as mediators between the US and Iran but that indirect talks stalled last week and work toward an in-person meeting had appeared to end.
Source: CNN
-- Agencies
