‘You can worry about this later’: Trump rejects Putin’s offer to broker Israel-Iran ceasefire, asks him to mediate his own first | World News

Amid the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict, US President Donald Trump said he rejected his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s offer to mediate a ceasefire between the two longstanding foes in the Middle East, telling him to focus on brokering his own peace deal with Ukraine first.
“I spoke to Putin yesterday and he actually offered to help mediate,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday (June 18).
“I said, ‘Do me a favour, mediate your own. Let’s mediate Russia first.’ I said, ‘Vladimir, let’s mediate Russia first. You can worry about this later,” he added.
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Trump’s remarks come after Putin, during his meeting with senior news leaders of international news agencies in St. Petersburg, said that Russia had shared proposals with Israel, Iran and the US to de-escalate the situation in the West Asia region.
“We are not imposing anything on anyone; we are simply talking about how we see a possible way out of the situation,” he said. “But the decision, of course, is up to the political leadership of all these countries, primarily Iran and Israel.”
He then affirmed that even though the situation is complex, a solution to the conflict is possible
“It’s a delicate issue,” the Russian president said. “In my view, a solution could be found.”Story continues below this ad
Trump, Putin discuss Israel-Iran tensions in phone call
Trump and Putin held a telephonic conversation on Saturday where the two leaders discussed the escalating tensions between Israel and Iran and also spoke about Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social handle, said that he and his Russian counterpart spoke about Israel’s ballic attacks on Tehran and Iran’s retaliatory missile salvos, while also highlighting that he pressed the Russian president to end the war in Ukraine.
“President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a Happy Birthday, but to more importantly, talk about Iran, a country he knows very well,” Trump wrote.
“We talked at length. Much less time was spent talking about Russia/Ukraine, but that will be for next week. He is doing the planned prisoner swaps — large numbers of prisoners are being exchanged, immediately, from both sides,” he said. “The call lasted approximately 1 hour. He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war should also end.”