US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Iran should surrender to end the war with the US as talks between the countries remained stalled.
“They should put up the white flag of surrender,” Trump told a Fox News reporter during a phone interview.
An interim deal agreed to in June declared an ‘immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts’, but quickly unravelled, with Trump saying it was ‘over’ on July 7 and Iran’s foreign ministry declaring it ‘suspended’ a week later.
Under that memorandum of understanding (MoU), Iran and the US committed to negotiating a final deal – covering broader issues such as the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme – in a maximum of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent. Yesterday marked 60 days since the MoU was signed.
Trump also told Fox News that the midterms were not impacting his strategy on Iran.
“Midterms have nothing to do with my thinking,” he said.
Earlier, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “The number one goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a nuclear weapon,” repeating one of his stated rationales for the war.
Meanwhile, Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his presidency with an overwhelming majority of Americans concerned that the war will last a long time, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Just 33 per cent of respondents in the four-day survey said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 64pc disapproved.
Trump’s approval rating, down from 35pc in a poll that closed earlier this month and lower than at any point in his current term, has now tied the lowest level of his prior term reached in December 2017.
After returning to the White House last year with just under half the country approving of his presidency, Trump’s popularity this year took a hit after he ordered strikes on Iran.
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