Israeli Air Force targets Tehran as Trump claims peace talks 'productive'

The Israel Air Force on Monday confirmed that it had launched a wave of strikes on Tehran targeting key infrastructure, just moments after President Donald Trump announced he would not make a similar move in light of alleged talks with Iran that he deemed productive.

"The Air Force has begun, a short while ago, another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran," the IAF posted on X.

Trump previously gave Tehran a 48-hour deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its civilian power grid. The Iranians did not open the strait and threatened to target desalination plants in the Persian Gulf if Trump made such a move.

Ultimately, Trump issued a five-day pause on the power plant strikes, saying negotiations had been "very good and productive."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry, however, has denied direct talks with Washington and indicated that the discussions in question have merely been a handful of messages passed through third-party nations, including Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan.

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, who resigned due to his opposition to the war, opined that Israel's actions were effectively undercutting any peace deal.

'Step 1 in deescalation must be restraining the Israelis, otherwise all efforts to negotiate will follow this pattern:

POTUS publicly announces deescalation.

Israel takes major strikes to destroy the negotiations & in turn weaken our ability to negotiate," he posted on X. "
The war accelerates."

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.