The US president has rejected Kiev\u2019s offer to intercept Iranian drones in the Middle East<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has dismissed Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s offer to assist with countering Iranian drones in the Middle East, saying he is the \u201clast person\u201d Washington needs help from.
\nSince the launch of US-Israeli strikes on Iran late last month, Zelensky has repeatedly signaled his readiness to get involved in the conflict, claiming that Washington has appealed for help defending American assets stationed in the Gulf against Iranian retaliatory attacks. On Friday, he reiterated the offer on X, arguing that without Ukrainian \u201cexpertise,\u201d the US will not be able to \u201cstabilize the situation.\u201d
\nIn a telephone interview with NBC News on Saturday, the US president rejected the idea that Washington requested or requires Ukrainian assistance.
\n\u201cWe don\u2019t need help,\u201d Trump said, adding that Zelensky is the \u201clast person we need help from.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Trump also criticized Zelensky\u2019s approach to negotiations with Moscow, arguing that \u201cZelensky is far more difficult to make a deal with\u201d than Russian President Vladimir Putin.
\n\u201cI\u2019m surprised that Zelensky doesn\u2019t want to make a deal. Tell Zelensky to make a deal because Putin\u2019s willing to make a deal,\u201d he told NBC.
\nSince returning to office last year, Trump has pushed for a negotiated settlement between Kiev and Moscow, leading to US-mediated trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi in January and follow-up negotiations in Geneva last month.<\/p>\n
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The next round of talks\u00a0was expected to take place in early March. However, with the Trump administration focused on the conflict with Iran, the meeting has reportedly been postponed until next week at the earliest.
\nZelensky then sought to insert Ukraine into the Middle East conflict, saying he had instructed officials to \u201cprovide the necessary means and ensure the presence of Ukrainian specialists capable of guaranteeing the necessary security.\u201d
\nThe head of the national security commission of the Iranian parliament, Ebrahim Azizi, reacted on X, saying that \u201cby providing drone support to the Israeli regime, failed Ukraine has effectively become involved in the war,\u201d and warning that Kiev could face retaliation, with the entire country becoming a target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US president has rejected Kiev\u2019s offer to intercept Iranian drones in the Middle East US President Donald Trump has dismissed Vladimir Zelensky\u2019s offer to assist with countering Iranian drones…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t