Trump is considering fresh strikes on Iran if negotiations fail, Axios reported.
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir joined Qatari officials in Tehran for last-minute talks.
Marco Rubio said there had been “slight progress” in discussions with Iran.
US President Donald Trump is “seriously considering” launching fresh strikes against Iran if last-minute negotiations fail to produce a peace deal, Axios reported on Friday, as diplomatic efforts involving Pakistan and Qatar continued in Tehran.
According to PTI, Trump met senior members of his national security team on Friday morning to discuss the war on Iran, even as Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir visited Tehran and joined a Qatari delegation in a last-minute effort to secure a deal. Munir is expected to meet on Saturday with Gen Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a key figure in Iranian decision-making.
Axios, citing two US officials, reported that Trump is weighing further military action against Iran unless negotiations result in a breakthrough. A US official briefed on the talks described the negotiations as “agonising”, saying drafts were “going back and forth every day” with little progress.
The meeting at the White House was attended by Vice President J D Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other officials.
“Iran is dying to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. But we hit them hard, and we had no choice because Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. They cannot have it,” Trump said during an event at the White House on Friday.
Reported PTI, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there had been “slight progress” during talks with Iran while speaking to reporters in Sweden on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.
Rubio said he did not want to exaggerate developments in the talks, but added there had been “a little bit of movement, and that’s good”.
Trump later travelled to New York for a political rally ahead of the November mid-term elections. Earlier, he had planned to spend the weekend at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey, but cancelled the trip and returned to the White House on Friday evening.
Trump also wrote on his Truth Social account that he would not attend his son Don Jr.’s wedding this weekend because of “circumstances pertaining to government and my love for the United States of America.”
“I feel it is important for me to remain in Washington, DC, at the White House during this important period of time,” he wrote.
PTI reported that a source close to Trump and another source familiar with the situation said the president had grown increasingly frustrated with the negotiations over the past several days.
According to Axios, Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that he wanted to give diplomacy another chance, but by Thursday night he was leaning towards ordering a strike.
A source close to Trump told Axios that the president had raised the possibility of a final “decisive” military operation after which he could declare victory and end the war.
(With inputs from PTI)
