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With U.S.-Iran negotiations to end the conflict repeatedly stalling, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday (local time) raised the possibility of a large-scale attack on Iran that could signal the end of the cease-fire.
In a phone interview with Fox News that day, Trump said, "Iran keeps using the United States during the negotiations," adding, "I am close to ordering new airstrikes on Iran's power plants and bridges." He said, "Iran had the chance to sign an agreement (the cease-fire deal) and survive," warning that he could order new airstrikes against the Iranian regime for stalling at the negotiating table.
On the U.S. military's retaliatory airstrikes carried out the previous day, Trump said, "Iran tried to rebuild its defense capabilities during the cease-fire, but it failed to fend off the U.S. strikes overnight and came under concentrated bombardment from U.S. fighter jets." The U.S. military struck Iran's radar systems and air-defense bases in retaliation for an Iranian suicide drone downing an Apache helicopter.
Trump also took issue with Iran's negotiating posture that day on the social media platform Truth Social. "Iran took too long to negotiate a deal favorable to itself," he said. "Now they will have to pay the price." He added, "Iran only talks and does not act. The bully of the Middle East is dead." Trump further said, "Iran's military is a complete mess, and a large part of its navy and air force no longer even exists," adding, "They have been utterly defeated."
These remarks are interpreted as an expression of frustration that the negotiations to end the conflict are dragging on longer than expected, while also pressuring Iran to accept U.S. demands by threatening stronger attacks.
Earlier, in a phone interview with Fox News on the 7th, Trump had said that negotiations with Iran were progressing in a direction that could lead to a deal by the 10th at the latest. However, the downing of the Apache helicopter by an Iranian drone and the ensuing armed clashes between the two sides have heightened concerns that not only the cease-fire agreement but even the precariously holding truce could collapse.
Still, some see it as difficult for Trump to actually choose major escalation. The Iran war situation is closely tied to oil prices in the United States, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, opens on the 11th.
Meanwhile, in the phone interview that day, Trump again confirmed that it was an Iranian suicide drone that downed the Apache helicopter.
According to the account he gave, an Iranian unmanned drone collided with the Apache helicopter and became lodged between the two pilots, with the cockpit engulfed in heat emitted by the drone on the verge of exploding. The pilots, who had been flying at very low altitude, set the helicopter down on the sea within seconds and were rescued about two hours later by a U.S. military unmanned surface drone.
Trump described the process as a "miracle" and said it was the first time in history that a surface drone had rescued U.S. troops, Fox News reported.
