President Donald Trump looks on during a National Economic Council meeting in the Oval Office at the White House March 24, 2017 in Washington, DC.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday morning urged Tehran to reach a nuclear deal “before there is nothing left,” hours after Israel launched a wave of airstrikes against Iran.
The Jewish state says its offensive targeted Tehran’s nuclear program. Close Israeli ally and weapons supplier Washington says it was briefed on the hostilities but did not participate.
Iranian media reported the airstrikes hit Tehran and Natanz, which houses a key nuclear facility. As of Friday morning, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran’s Isfahan nuclear site was not impacted, and “no increase in radiation levels has been observed at the Natanz site.”
“I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal,” Trump said on his Truth Social media platform.
He added that he warned Tehran that “the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it.”
The commander-in-chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salam, was killed during the onslaught, Iranian state media reported. Israel’s defense ministry said most of the top brass of the IRGC died in the attack. CNBC could not independently verify this report.
Circumstances “will only get worse,” but further bloodshed could still be prevented, Trump said. “Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire.”
Nuclear deal hangs in the balance
Trump pulled the U.S. out of the first Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal during his first presidential mandate, imposing a spate of wide-spanning and economically debilitating sanctions against Tehran at the time.
The U.S. president has been steadfast in pursuing a new deal over Iran’s nuclear program since returning to the White House, stressing he favored an agreement. Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran have yet to bear fruit on this count, however, with Tehran accusing Washington of not respecting Iran’s right to enrich uranium for what it says are peaceful purposes.
A fresh round of U.S.-Iran nuclear deal negotiations were scheduled for Sunday in Oman. Iranian officials have been cited by state media saying they will not be attending.
Other world leaders have broadly urged restraint as Iran and Israel navigate the conflict, amid Tehran’s pledge to retaliate.
Markets are currently watching whether the rekindled hostilities between arch-rivals Iran and Israel, which have been simmering since direct fire was last exchanged last year, will embroil the broader oil-rich Middle East region.
— CNBC’s Natasha Turak contributed to this report.
