LIVE Trump says he is “not satisfied” with the talks with Iran and is about to make “an important decision” / Tehran's concession, announced by the mediator of the Geneva negotiations
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is not satisfied with how negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program are going and that he still wants to reach an agreement with Tehran, but warned that “sometimes you have to” use military force, Reuters reports.
Trump admits a “major decision” is coming on Iran
President Donald Trump acknowledged on Friday that he faces a difficult choice over how to proceed with Iran after diplomatic efforts have proved unsatisfactory.
“We have an important decision to make,” he told a crowd Friday at a rally in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he is promoting his energy agenda, CNN reports.
Trump went on to say that the decision is “not easy” and that Iran has long engaged in destructive actions. “We have a country that has been blowing people up for 47 years,” he said.
“They want to make a deal, but it has to be a deal of substance,” the US president said. He said he consulted with the two Republican senators from Texas, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, aboard Air Force One while en route to the state.
“I told them we have to make a deal that has substance,” Trump recounted, adding, “I'd rather do it peacefully. But they're very difficult people.”
“If you can't stockpile, you can't make a bomb”
Shortly after Trump's statement, the head of diplomacy of Oman, a country that acts as a mediator between the United States and Iran, announced on an American television station that Iran had agreed not to stockpile enriched uranium, describing this step as a major development in the negotiations with the United States.
“It's something completely new, which makes the (uranium) enrichment argument much less relevant, because now we're talking about no stockpiling,” Oman's foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, told CBS.
“If you can't store enriched material, you can't possibly make a bomb,” he said.
Iran agrees not to stockpile enriched uranium, Geneva talks mediator says. “If you can't stockpile, you can't make a bomb”
Trump demands “zero enrichment” of uranium in Iran
Donald Trump reiterated as he arrived in Texas that he is “unsatisfied with the negotiations” with Tehran over its nuclear program and that he does not want any uranium enrichment in Iran.
“I'm not happy with the negotiations,” he stressed, adding that the Iranians “don't want to go far enough. It's a shame.”
“I say zero enrichment,” Trump continued. “Not 20%, not 30%. They always want 20%, 30%… They say it's for civilian use, for civilian purposes. I think it's not civilian at all.”
Asked by a reporter how close he was to making a decision on whether to launch a military strike, Trump said: “I'd rather not tell you.”
Trump, asked if he will use force in Iran: “I would like not to use it, but sometimes we have to”
Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Texas, Trump said Iran was still unwilling to give up its nuclear weapons, as the United States is demanding.
He made the remarks a day after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner's talks with Iranian officials in Geneva ended without an agreement. A massive US military presence is in the region, awaiting Trump's order.
Asked about the possibility of using force, Trump said the United States has the most powerful military in the world.
“I'd like not to use it, but sometimes I have to,” he replied.
Trump also said that further talks on Iran would take place later in the day. He did not specify with whom, but the main American defense officials were at the White House yesterday for discussions.
“We don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons, and they don't say those magic words,” Trump said.
🔴 Trump on Iran: I'm not happy that they are not willing to give us what we should have. #USIranTalks pic.twitter.com/ntj0dDT33E
— Cher Askole (@askoaskole) February 27, 2026
President Donald Trump has events planned in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Friday, before flying to Palm Beach, Florida, to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Trump was presented with military options against Iran on Thursday
The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East briefed President Donald Trump on Thursday about options for military action against Iran, according to a U.S. official and a source with knowledge of the meeting, Axios reported Friday morning.
This was the first time US Central Command commander Admiral Brad Cooper briefed Trump since the start of the Iran crisis last December. The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, also attended the briefing, according to the US official.
Cooper and Caine provided Trump with military options as the third round of US-Iran nuclear talks were winding down in Geneva. This meeting in Switzerland was seen by many in the Trump administration as the last chance for diplomacy before Trump decides whether to start a war.
A senior US official told Axios that the talks were “positive”, but did not provide further details.
Possible military intervention in Iran
All this information comes in the context of a massive grouping of American military forces in the region, and the largest aircraft carrier in the world, the USS Gerald Ford, would arrive in northern Israel on Friday itself, after Donald Trump threatened several times in recent months that he could resort to strikes against Iran.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, moreover, that the US mobilized the largest air force in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, signaling a possible military intervention in Iran.
The Wall Street Journal also wrote that Trump has not yet decided whether he will still order the attacks, nor has he established the ultimate goals: the destruction of the nuclear program, the ballistic arsenal or even the overthrow of the regime.
Other moves signaled a possible impending event: After the US embassy in Israel advised employees to leave Israeli territory as soon as possible on Friday morning, the British government decided to withdraw its embassy staff from Tehran and relocate its embassy staff from Israel, citing “regional risk information”. China, France, Germany and Italy also issued warning messages to their nationals in Israel and the region.
Tension in the Middle East, where the threat of strikes against Iran is looming. Withdrawal of diplomatic personnel, several countries warn their citizens / MAE announcement with Romania's decision
