Trump says he is hearing of possible Iran link to flydubai pilot
Asked about a connection to Iran, Trump tells Israel's N12 News, "We are looking into that, according to what I'm hearing, yes"
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Trump said he is looking into reports that a pilot involved in a mid-air altercation this week has ties to Iran. Asked directly about an Iran connection, he told Israel's N12 News, "We are looking into that, according to what I'm hearing, yes."
The altercation took place between pilots on a flydubai flight between Dubai and Tel Aviv, diverting that aircraft to Saudi Arabia and sending a second flydubai plane back to Dubai. Israel's finance minister, Katz, called the episode a jihadist terror attempt.
The comments come as the diplomatic track between Washington and Tehran remains unsettled. Qatar has floated a new proposal to break the deadlock after Iran let a US deadline for a response pass unanswered. Iran's foreign minister, Araghchi, has briefed the Iranian president on a separate US proposal, according to state news agency IRNA. Trump himself denied days earlier that he had offered Tehran any sanctions relief, a denial that stalled the talks again, and he said on September 29 that Iran is doing very poorly, adding he is uncertain whether it will capitulate.
An alleged Iranian link to a specific pilot would be a sharper, more concrete escalation than the weeks of rhetorical exchanges between Trump, Netanyahu and Iranian officials over nuclear talks and sanctions relief. It stands in contrast to the sanctions-relief trial balloon Trump floated and then denied just days earlier, which had kept the diplomatic track technically alive even as both sides traded confrontational statements. If the Iran connection is confirmed, it would narrow the room for the mediated settlement officials have described and shift emphasis back toward direct military confrontation, reinforcing the risk premium already built into crude oil.