NEW YORK, June 16 — Amid escalating hostilities between Iran and Israel, former U.S. President Donald Trump has stepped into the diplomatic fray, calling for an urgent peace deal and drawing parallels to his claimed intervention in the India-Pakistan ceasefire last month, reported by the APP.
In a post on his Truth Social platform Sunday, Trump urged Iran and Israel to “make a deal,” referencing how he had leveraged U.S. trade relationships to halt rising tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed neighbors. “TRADE brought reason, cohesion, and sanity,” he wrote. “Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran!”
The former president revealed that numerous behind-the-scenes meetings were taking place and floated the possibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin acting as a mediator. “He called me about it. We had a long talk,” Trump told ABC News, referencing a conversation with Putin on his 79th birthday. “This is something I believe is going to get resolved.”
In a separate revelation, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News that Trump recently rejected an Israeli proposal to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. According to an American official cited by CBS, Trump personally told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that such an act was “not a good idea.” The conversation reportedly occurred in the aftermath of Israel’s massive airstrikes on Iran last week.
Although a nuclear deal remains Trump’s stated objective, plans for U.S.-Iran talks in Oman were canceled following the latest violence. Trump said Iran missed a 60-day deadline he had set, but added that discussions were still ongoing. “There’s no deadline,” he told ABC. “They’d like to make a deal… This may have actually sped it up.”
Trump insisted the U.S. had no role in Israel’s latest attack, but issued a stark warning to Tehran: any strike on U.S. assets would trigger retaliation “at levels never seen before.”
While critics may dismiss his remarks as self-congratulatory, Trump remains optimistic. “I do a lot and never get credit,” he wrote. “But that’s OK—the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!
