Trump says US could strike Iran 'maybe tomorrow' or reach a deal; Iran says its positions won't change

President Donald Trump said Saturday that the United States could launch new strikes on Iran as soon as Sunday, while also leaving the door open to a negotiated agreement with Tehran. Iran’s foreign minister answered on Sunday that another round of fighting would not change his government’s positions.

Trump made the remarks to reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, after he and first lady Melania Trump cast early ballots in the midterm elections, according to Anadolu Agency and Open Magazine. Asked how far along he was in weighing a possible attack, Trump said, “We’re thinking about doing it, and maybe tomorrow.” He declined to give a timetable, adding, “Do you really think I’m going to tell you if I’m going to do it?”

The president also described a second path. He said there was “a possibility we’ll have a nice, big, beautiful agreement,” and said of Iran’s leaders, “They want to make a deal, but the problem is, will they hold the deal?” He offered no details about what such an agreement would contain.

A day earlier, on Friday, Trump said Washington “may do another little Epic Fury,” CBS News reported. The phrase refers to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on Feb. 28. Trump had previously said that any new strikes would wait until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections, according to CBS News.

Tehran responds

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a renewed war with the United States and Israel would leave Iran’s policies unchanged. “Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same,” Araghchi said at a televised event in Tehran, according to CBS News and Agence France-Presse. He added that the two countries “have already done so twice and have seen the results.”

On Saturday, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Ali Abdollahi, warned on state television that American warships would be kept out of the Gulf “under any circumstances and at any time,” CBS News reported.

Iranian media also denied a report that Tehran had sent a new offer through Pakistani mediators to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, Open Magazine reported. Separately, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, said Saturday that Iran remains open to talks under an interim deal brokered by Pakistan in June, according to CBS News.

Intelligence warning and embassy cuts

The exchange follows a warning from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton that Iran has stepped up efforts to target Americans overseas. In an unclassified memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio dated Oct. 23, Clayton wrote that “the lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” Reuters reported. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was copied on the memo. CBS News reported that the memo does not name specific targets or say whether an attack is imminent.

The State Department is cutting staff at four U.S. embassies in the region, in the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon and Jordan, according to CBS News and the Associated Press. All four will remain open. Earlier in the week, the department ordered non-emergency employees and their families to leave U.S. diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported. On Saturday, the department updated travel advisories for 14 countries in the region, citing the threat from the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen.

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack, who does not have a direct role in Iran policy, said Friday that strikes could resume this weekend. “Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely,” Barrack said, according to CBS News.

As of Sunday morning, no new U.S. strike on Iran had been announced.