US President Donald Trump said the United States was ready to proceed with further attacks on Tehran if Iran did not agree to a peace deal but suggested Washington could wait a “few days” to get “the right answers” — the first concrete timeframe he has offered since pausing Operation Epic Fury six weeks ago, Ada Derana reported.
Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday (May 20), Trump said the situation was “right on the borderline” and could escalate quickly. “Believe me, if we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go.” Asked how long he would wait, he said: “It could be a few days, but it could go very quickly.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned against renewed attacks. “If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time,” it said in a statement. Tehran also launched a new “Persian Gulf Strait Authority” to control traffic through the Strait of Hormuz — codifying executive control over the chokepoint alongside the parliament’s 10-clause Hormuz law.
Trump reiterated his determination not to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. “We’re in the final stages of Iran. We’ll see what happens. Either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty, but hopefully that won’t happen.”
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in a call with Trump, welcomed the extension of the ceasefire and said a “reasonable solution” was possible, Ankara said. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the country’s top peace negotiator, said in an audio message that “obvious and hidden moves by the enemy” showed Washington was preparing new attacks.
Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran was pursuing negotiations “with seriousness and good faith” but had “strong and reasonable suspicion over America’s performance”. Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Wednesday continuing the messaging shuttle that has run since the first formal Islamabad round earlier in May. Iran’s new offer reportedly repeats earlier demands — Hormuz control, war compensation, sanctions relief, the release of frozen assets and US troop withdrawal — that Trump had previously rejected.
Trump said separately on Tuesday that he had been an hour away from ordering attacks earlier this week in response to requests from several of Iran’s Gulf neighbours, before Gulf leaders publicly denied any prior knowledge of a planned strike. His earlier pause at Saudi and Qatari urging had set the stage for this week’s diplomatic interval.
Source: Ada Derana.
