President Donald Trump has claimed Iranian officials called him directly following second-wave U.S. airstrikes on Iranian targets Wednesday.
He claimed to Fox News that the top officials in Tehran directly requested a halt to the bombing attacks to resume negotiations, which began at 5.15pm ET.
US Central Command said the strikes came at the ‘Commander-in-Chief’s direction’ and were ‘in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.’
The ‘precision munitions’ struck ‘military surveillance capabilities, communication systems, and air defense sites,’ CENTCOM said.
More strikes may also be forthcoming, President Donald Trump warned.
‘We will bomb the Iranians again tomorrow night if they refuse to sign the proposed deal,’ he told Fox, adding that the bombing would stop soon but if Tehran did not sign a peace deal ‘we’ll bomb the s**t out of them.’
Over the weeks, Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the stalled efforts to negotiate a peace deal and was hoping the bombing efforts would push Iran to strike a deal.
He even told his aides after approving the strikes on Tuesday to deliver a message to Tehran via the mediators in Qatar, that the attacks were in response to Iranian forces downing an Apache helicopter with two crew members on board – and were not meant to be the start of another all-out war.
