Iran’s National Security Council has warned there will be “no retreat” in the war with the US – hours after Donald Trump piled pressure on Tehran to agree a peace deal. Secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr said the country’s military had shown “fierce resistance and pinned the enemy to the ground”.
He added: “Now more than ever, the country needs unity and cohesion so that the Americans and Zionists will also be disappointed in this regard.” This comes after two senior Iranian officials travelled to meet the Qatari prime minister in Doha to discuss a peace deal with the US.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will lead Tehran’s delegation, according to Reuters.
They are joined by the governor of Iran’s central bank, there to negotiate the release of frozen funds.
The US President also claimed negotiations with Iran “are proceeding nicely” in a lengthy statement on his social media platform Truth Social.
However, he warned that if a deal cannot be agreed upon, US forces would go “back to the battlefront … bigger and stronger than ever”.
He wrote: “Negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran are proceeding nicely! It will only be a Great Deal for all or, no Deal at all — Back to the Battlefront and shooting, but bigger and stronger than ever before — And nobody wants that!”
He said it “would be something special” for Iran to join.
Mr Trump added “After all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords.”
