Yasin Gungor and Fatma Zehra Solmaz
07 June 2026•Update: 08 June 2026
US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Iran to return to negotiations after missile strikes on Israel while calling on Tel Aviv not to retaliate, saying more time was needed for diplomacy, according to media reports
“You've shot your missiles, that's enough. Get back to the table and make a deal,” Trump told Fox News, referring to Iran.
The president said he expected that an agreement with Tehran could be signed “Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of this coming week.”
Iran's missile attack came in response to repeated Israeli strikes on Lebanon despite multiple US-brokered ceasefires, including a strike on a Hezbollah position in Beirut on Sunday. Tehran has said that a permanent Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon must be in place before any deal with Washington can be reached.
A senior US official, as reported by the Axios news site, said the Trump administration did not authorize Israel's Beirut strike, adding that Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call to hold off on further action because "we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal."
Netanyahu initially resisted but ultimately "pseudo agreed" to stand down, the official said, noting that Sunday's call was notably calmer than the two leaders' tense exchange last week, with Trump not raising his voice.
"We think the president bought a little bit of time. He is pretty adamant that we are close to a deal with Iran. I don't think anything is imminent in terms of an Israeli strike," the official said.
The official stressed the stakes at the moment.
"We are in a moment in time — that why jeopardize a potential deal when you are in the fourth quarter. The president thinks that we have been in this thing for three months — now is the time to end this thing," the official added.
The Iranian attack, which targeted Haifa and Nazareth, was the first on Israeli territory since the April 8 ceasefire and came after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier Sunday.
Addressing the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, Trump emphasized that the military actions were "not coordinated with the United States." He said he was "not happy” about the strikes targeting Hezbollah in Beirut.
He also said the Iranian strikes “didn't hurt anybody” and that he hopes Israel does not retaliate, as strikes back are “just gonna keep going like the last 47 years or the last 3,000 years.”
The president also briefly spoke to the New York Post and said “things are going very well.”
Trump previously said he was “perturbed” by Netanyahu’s position of "constantly fighting" with Lebanon.
