Trump says Iran talks ‘on borderline’, willing to wait for a few days to get 'right answer'

Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that talks with Iran were balanced on a knife's edge, telling reporters the situation was "right on the borderline" between a negotiated peace deal and a fresh wave of US military strikes, even as he signalled Washington was prepared to wait a few more days for Tehran to respond. Trump's Warning: 'We're All Ready to Go' Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington, Trump delivered some of his starkest language yet on the state of negotiations with Iran, leaving little ambiguity about what a breakdown in talks would mean. Also Read | Gold Steadies as Hopes of US-Iran Truce Lower Odds of Rate Hikes "It's right on the borderline, believe me," Trump said. "If we don't get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We're all ready to go. We have to get the right answers. It would have to be a complete 100 percent good answers." Asked how long he was prepared to wait, Trump suggested the window was narrow but not yet closed. "It could be a few days, but it could go very quickly." He added that a deal would save "a lot of time, energy and lives" and could be reached "very quickly, or in a few days," though he offered no specifics on what an acceptable agreement would look like. Earlier in the day, Trump had struck a similarly blunt tone. "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. Ideally I'd like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way," he told reporters. How Close Did the US Come to Striking Iran This Week? Trump confirmed on Tuesday that he had been an hour away from ordering a resumption of strikes against Iran, a decision he said he postponed at the request of several Gulf states. The planned attack had been scheduled for Tuesday before it was called off. Also Read | Oil Edges Up After Plunging on Optimism Over US-Iran Agreement This is the second time Trump has pulled back from military escalation in recent weeks. Six weeks ago, he paused Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli bombing campaign that began on 28 February, in exchange for a ceasefire. Since then, peace talks have made little tangible progress, while soaring petrol prices have weighed on the president's approval ratings and placed growing political pressure on the White House to bring the conflict to a close. Iran Responds: 'The Promised Regional War Will Extend Beyond the Region' Tehran has not softened its public posture in response to Trump's warnings. Iran's Revolutionary Guards issued a pointed statement warning against any renewed military action. "If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time," the Guards said. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a more measured tone, saying Tehran remained open to negotiations but drawing a firm line on the question of coercion. "Forcing Iran to surrender through coercion is nothing but an illusion," Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X. Also Read | Fed officials see possible interest rate hikes if Iran war keeps inflation high Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran was pursuing negotiations "with seriousness and good faith, but it has strong and reasonable suspicion over America's performance." Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran's top peace negotiator, said in an audio message on social media that "obvious and hidden moves by the enemy" showed the Americans were preparing new attacks. Iran's Latest Peace Offer: What Tehran Is Demanding Iran submitted a new offer to the US this week. According to Tehran's own descriptions, the proposal largely repeats terms previously rejected by Trump, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, the lifting of sanctions, the release of frozen assets, and the withdrawal of US troops from the region. Pakistan, which hosted the only formal round of peace talks held so far, has been serving as the primary conduit for messages between Washington and Tehran. On Wednesday, Pakistan's interior minister was in Tehran as part of the latest diplomatic push, with the two sides continuing to exchange messages through Pakistani mediation. Trump reiterated his core demand that Iran would not be permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon. Six weeks of bombing have, however, left Iran's stockpile of near-weapons-grade enriched uranium intact, along with its capacity to threaten neighbours through missiles, drones and proxy militias. The Strait of Hormuz: Global Energy Supplies at Stake At the heart of the conflict's economic consequences lies the Strait of Hormuz, through which a significant share of the world's oil supply ordinarily passes. Iran has largely closed the strait to all vessels except its own since the US-Israeli attacks began in February, causing what analysts have described as the most severe disruption to global energy supplies in history. The US r