A senior Iranian official publicly mocked President Donald Trump on Monday after Trump disclosed that he had delayed a planned military strike against Iran to allow additional time for negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leadership, ridiculed Trump’s announcement in a social media post.

“He sets a deadline for a military strike and then cancels it himself! All with the delusional hope of making the Iranian nation and officials surrender!” Rezaei wrote in a post on social media.

He further threatened, “The iron fist of the powerful Armed Forces and the great nation of Iran will force them to retreat and surrender.”

Rezaei’s comments came shortly after Trump revealed on Truth Social that the United States had been preparing to carry out a military strike against Iran on Tuesday but decided to postpone the operation because of ongoing diplomatic discussions.

Later Tuesday, Trump elaborated on the decision while speaking with reporters, indicating that a major military action had been imminent.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I’ve put it off for a little while, hopefully, maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to.”

Trump said several Gulf nations had urged Washington to delay military action in hopes that diplomacy could still succeed.

“I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others if we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal. And if we can do that, where there’s no nuclear weapon going into the hands of Iran, I think, and if they’re satisfied, we will be probably satisfied also.”

The president said Israel and other regional allies were informed about the decision to hold off on the strike.

He stressed that the US informed Israel of the decision to hold off on the attack as well as “other people in the Middle East that have been involved with us.”

Trump described the current diplomatic effort as encouraging, though he cautioned that previous negotiations had also appeared promising before collapsing.

“It’s a very positive development, but we’ll see whether or not it amounts to anything. We’ve had periods of time where we thought [we were] pretty much getting close to making a deal, and it didn’t work out, but this is a little bit different,” said Trump, who added that the strike he halted would have been “very big and not something I wanted to do, but we have no choice because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”

He also emphasized that he would prefer a negotiated settlement over military action if such an agreement could effectively block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He also said that “there seems to be a very good chance they could work something out. If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I’d be very happy.”

In a separate interview with the New York Post on Monday, Trump warned that Iran was aware that significant developments could occur soon as tensions continue rising despite the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.

Trump stated in the interview that Iran knows “what’s going to be happening soon” as the fragile ceasefire between the US and the Islamic Republic continues to fray.

The president also said he was unwilling to offer Tehran additional concessions during negotiations.

Trump further stated that he is “not open” to further concessions to Iran.

The renewed diplomatic maneuvering follows reports that Iran recently transmitted a revised proposal through Pakistani intermediaries. According to reports, the updated proposal contained only modest adjustments compared to earlier drafts.

Sources familiar with the proposal said the new Iranian offer included broader language pledging that Tehran would not seek nuclear weapons, though it reportedly lacked concrete commitments regarding uranium enrichment levels or Iran’s existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Pakistani sources said the updated Iranian proposal included a commitment not to produce nuclear weapons, but did not address the issue of enriched uranium or developments surrounding the Strait of Hormuz.

{Matzav.com}