A Battered Iran Signals It Wants to De-Escalate Hostilities With Israel and Negotiate

Thomas Sowell is 94 years old. The Stanford Prof just explained better than anyone why Israel had to attack Iran and why the US should support this effort. He's the GOAT. And 100% right.

Has Iran had enough? Bibi is just getting this show started if they haven't.

A Battered Iran Signals It Wants to De-Escalate Hostilities With Israel and Negotiate

Messages passed by Tehran through intermediaries seek a return to talks if the U.S. stays out of the fight

By Summer Said, Benoit Faucon and Anat Peled, WSJ

Updated June 16, 2025 1:28 pm ET

• Iran seeks talks with the U.S. and Israel, sending messages via Arab intermediaries to end hostilities.

• Israel’s strikes target Iran’s nuclear facilities, military leaders and energy facilities.

• Gulf states urge the U.S. to pressure Israel to negotiate, fearing wider conflict and risks to energy assets.

DUBAI—Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said.

In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials it would be open to returning to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. Iran also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained.

But with Israeli warplanes able to fly freely over the capital and Iranian counterattacks inflicting minimal damage, Israeli leaders have little incentive to halt their assault before doing more to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites and further weaken the theocratic government’s hold on power.

Israeli strikes have killed key military leaders, including much of the top echelon of Iran’s air force, leaving Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei increasingly isolated. But the impact on nuclear facilities has been modest and analysts say it could take a long air war to get the results Israel wants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the attacks will continue until Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missiles are destroyed, and he has shown no indication he is ready to stop. He has also said regime change isn’t a goal but could be a result given the Iranian leadership’s weakness.

Israeli officials have said the military has prepared at least two weeks of strikes. On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart “to return swiftly to the negotiating table to reach an agreement,” and Arab leaders have called for an end to the fighting. President Trump resisted a military campaign for much of the year but has since cheered on Israel’s attacks and said Iran missed a chance to cut a deal.

“They’d like to talk, but they should have done that before,” Trump told reporters Monday in Canada, confirming that Iran had reached out through intermediaries to de-escalate.

Responding to Trump’s comments, Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that the U.S. president isn’t telling Israel to rein in its military campaign, which hadn’t yet reached its midway point.

“Trump isn’t telling us to stop,” Smotrich said.

Locations of Iranian Strikes in Israel

Iran has told some Arab officials it won’t unilaterally stop fighting and will continue to respond to Israeli attacks aiming to restore deterrence.

Securing a pause could give Iran breathing room to regroup and for pressure to build internationally against Israel’s campaign. It would also be a win for Tehran to keep the U.S. from bringing its bunker-busting military capabilities into the fight.

Tehran appears to be betting that Israel can’t afford to get stuck in a war of attrition and would have to seek a diplomatic solution eventually, Arab diplomats who have spoken with the Iranians said. Iranian officials said they thought Israel lacked a clear exit strategy and would need U.S. help to do meaningful damage to targets such as the Fordow uranium-enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain.

“The Iranians know the U.S. is supporting Israel in its defense, and they are sure the U.S. is supporting Israel logistically,” an Arab official said. “But they want guarantees the U.S. won’t join the attacks.”

Iran has told Arab officials it could accelerate its nuclear program and expand the scope of the war if there are no prospects of resuming talks with the U.S.

There is no indication Iran is ready to make new concessions in nuclear talks, the Arab intermediaries said. The diplomatic effort led by the Trump administration was stalled over Iran’s refusal to stop enriching uranium before the talks were cut short by Israel’s attacks last week.

Before the attack, a senior Israeli official said that an end to enrichment was the minimum Israel could accept from Iran. Israel and Gulf states are also concerned with Iran’s support for regional militias and its ballistic-missile program, which theoretically could come back up for discussion if Iran is backed into a sufficiently deep corner.

Israel has targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities and staff, as well as its military leadership. Over the weekend, Israel and Iran opened a new dimension to the conflict by striking at each other’s energy facilities. They are also inflicting mounting casualties on civilians.

Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman have been lobbying the U.S. to pressure Israel to stop the fighting, Arab officials said. They have warned the conflict could widen if Israel and Iran don’t return to the negotiating table—putting nearby energy assets at risk with potentially significant consequences for oil markets and the global economy.

A woman holds a poster of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at an anti-Israel protest.

An Iranian with a poster of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in power in Iran for nearly four decades. Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP