Trump Says Iran 'Better Get Serious Soon'

President Trump is warning Tehran that the clock is ticking. With a five-day halt on US strikes against Iran's energy facilities set to end Saturday, Trump said Thursday that Iran must "get serious soon" about talks "before it is too late."

• "The Iranian negotiators are very different and 'strange.'" Trump said in a Truth Social post early Thursday morning. "They are 'begging' us to make a deal, which they should be doing since they have been militarily obliterated, with zero chance of a comeback, and yet they publicly state that they are only 'looking at our proposal.' WRONG!!! They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won't be pretty!"

• Trump doubled down on his remarks in a Cabinet meeting Thursday, the New York Times reports. He said the war is "ahead of schedule" and Iran, which launched more strikes on Israel and Gulf countries on Thursday, has been "defeated." "They'll tell you, 'we're not negotiating,'" he said. "Of course, they're negotiating. They've been obliterated."
• The US, via intermediaries Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, has pushed for a high-level meeting this week on a 15-point American plan to stop the war, Axios reports. Iranian state media says Tehran has rejected the proposal as "excessive," with a senior official calling the talks "a ploy" and insisting the conflict will end only "on Tehran's own terms and timeline."

• Iran's foreign minister said there are no direct talks with Washington and messages are moving only through third countries, though he said the proposal is under review by top leaders. US officials are preparing options for a potential "final blow" that could include ground forces and heavy bombing, even as mediators say both sides remain deeply distrustful but have not abandoned the idea of negotiations, Axios reports.
• Trump envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the 15-point plan during Thursday's Cabinet meeting. He said that he and fellow envoy Jared Kushner are trying to persuade Iran "that this is the inflection point with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction," per the Times. Witkoff said there are "strong signs" that peace is possible and "Iran is looking for an off-ramp."
• At the Cabinet meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the war is "unlike Iraq. This isn't a tie. This is not parity. This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success." He said the objectives "remain clear: No nukes, no navy, and complete dismantling of their missile program and defense industrial base."
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a fan of 1990s rap, appeared to borrow a line from Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" in his remarks on the war, the AP reports. "But every day the Department of War lets the drummer get wicked over every portion of Iran that has these military capabilities, and the results are going to bear fruit for the world," Rubio said.