Trump rules out immediate Iran strikes amid US Midterms result and Netanyahu's push, repeats ‘locked and loaded’ warning

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (November 3) that the United States had no immediate plans to strike Iran, as results of the US midterm elections began pouring in. The statement came after US hit Iran's Qeshm Island a day ago and Iranian regime claimed that it has downed an American drone. While Trump ruled out immediate strike plans, he threatened yet again with his “locked and loaded” remark. On ongoing indirect negotiations with Tehran, Trump claimed, “We seem to be getting everything we want.” He said that the US military is “locked and loaded” if strikes are necessary.

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In an interview with FT, he emphasized that the US is "not really in a war" with Iran, citing Operation Midnight Hammer as having "wiped out their nuclear potential incapacity.""We then hit them again, Epic Fury, etc . . . But if you think about it, we haven’t really had a war with them in a long time, six months, maybe more," said Trump. “Even though it’s under hundreds of tons of rock, I would say that I’m not happy that it will be there,” Trump stated, adding that “we’ll see how that all works out,” he added.

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The statement by Trump is also seen at the backdrop of reports claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing Trump for another wave of strikes on Iran after the US Midterms elections. Reports suggested that a return to full-scale war with Iran could help Netanyahu form an emergency government after he and his far-right allies lost their parliamentary majority in last week's elections.

Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that there had been "a number of good conversations with the Iranians" after officials from the Islamic regime met with Qatari mediators in Doha for a third consecutive day of talks. "Look, the president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement," he said. “We're going to keep on working at it.”