DUBAI/WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said the war he launched with Israel on Iran was close to over, as the army chief of mediator Pakistan arrived in Tehran to try to prevent a renewal of the conflict.
The diplomatic push came as US and Iranian officials weighed a return to Pakistan for further talks after negotiations there ended on Sunday without a breakthrough.
Israel expects a two-week ceasefire agreed last week with the Iranians to be extended, a source told Reuters.
Pakistan’s military confirmed Field Marshal Asim Munir had arrived in Tehran. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Munir, who had mediated the last round of talks, was heading to Iran “to narrow gaps” between the two sides.
“I think you’re going to be watching an amazing two days ahead,” Trump told ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, according to a post by the reporter on X, adding he did not think it would be necessary to extend the ceasefire.
“I think it’s close to over, yeah. I mean I view it as very close to over,” Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network conducted Tuesday and broadcast Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens. I think they want to make a deal very badly.”
Officials from Pakistan, Iran and Gulf states also said both sides could return to Islamabad in coming days.
The talks last weekend broke down without an agreement to end the war, which Trump began alongside Israel on February 28, triggering Iranian attacks on Iran’s Gulf neighbours and reigniting a conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
