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President Donald Trump brushed aside reports Monday that Iran may be preparing to suspend negotiations with the United States, saying he is not concerned if the discussions come to an end and suggesting the talks have lost momentum.

Speaking in a phone interview with CNBC, Trump made clear that the prospect of the negotiations collapsing does not trouble him.

“I don’t care if they’re over, honestly.”

Emphasizing his lack of concern, Trump said he had little interest in whether the diplomatic process continues.

“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump said in a phone interview, adding that the negotiations “started to get very boring.”

Trump’s remarks followed reports that Iranian officials were considering halting discussions with Washington and exploring steps to shut down the Strait of Hormuz in response to Israeli military actions targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization.

When asked whether Tehran had officially notified him that the talks were ending, Trump said no such communication had been received.

“No, they haven’t.”

He went on to suggest that the negotiations may have simply run their course.

“If they’re over, they’re over. … Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring,” Trump said.

The president also noted that he intended to discuss developments in Lebanon with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Later in the day, Trump revealed on Truth Social that he had already spoken with Netanyahu and described the conversation as productive.

“There will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump wrote.

Trump further stated that intermediaries had facilitated communication with Hezbollah and claimed both sides had agreed to halt hostilities.

Trump also said he communicated with Hezbollah “through highly placed Representatives,” adding that “they agreed that all shooting will stop — That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”

Despite reports of a possible breakdown in diplomacy, Trump later signaled that discussions with Tehran remain active.

In a separate post, Trump said, “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

The president also rejected concerns that tensions with Iran could trigger higher oil prices, predicting instead that energy costs would soon move sharply lower.

“I think the oil will be dropping like a rock in the very near, you know, the very near distance,” Trump said.

Trump argued that Americans recognize the stakes involved in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and are willing to absorb short-term economic costs if necessary.

“Once you explain that this is all about Iran having a nuclear weapon, people are willing to pay a little bit more,” he said.

He also expressed confidence that gasoline prices would soon decline.

In separate remarks to NBC News on Monday, Trump said the White House had not received any official notification from Iran regarding a suspension of negotiations.

“It’s an appropriate thing to say, because they’re better negotiators than they are fighters,” Trump said. “But they haven’t informed us of that.”

Trump also minimized the significance of the reports, indicating that even if negotiations were paused, it would not necessarily lead to military escalation.

“It doesn’t mean we’re going to go and start dropping bombs all over there,” Trump said. “We’ll keep the blockade.”

Roshei yeshiva, rabbanim, and admorim packed the Keter HaRimon hall in Bnei Brak on Sunday night for an emergency asifa for Keren Olam HaTorah, raising a unified cry over what the gedolim repeatedly described as the gravest assault on olam haTorah in Eretz Yisroel in decades.

The asifa came amidst the combined crises of the gezeiras hagiyus, the slashing of yeshiva budgets and the financial choking of thousands of bnei Torah and avreichim, and served as a call to global Jewry to carry a piece of the burden of holding up the limud haTorah of Eretz Yisroel.

The pain of the families, more than the politics, set the tone from the opening words. HaRav Dov Landau shlit”a expressed the daily fear that has taken hold inside the homes of bnei Torah. Standing before the assembled gedolim, he spoke of the trembling of the wife of the avreich and the mother of the ben yeshiva every time her husband or son walks out the door, dreading that the military police will seize him.

“Our heart aches from the pain of their families,” Rav Landau said, laying out the new blunt reality: the responsibility for the kiyum of the olam haTorah no longer sits on the shoulders of the gevirim alone. Every Yid, he said, must accept the responsibility on their shoulders, to whatever extent they can.

Harav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlit”a, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, added that the days of hoping the situation would reverse itself in a year or two are over. The old yeshiva budgets are not coming back, he said, and the framework in which a handful of wealthy supporters carried the olam haTorah simply cannot stretch to meet the moment.

“Every Yid must be a shutaf in Keren Olam HaTorah,” Rav Hirsch declared. He laid out the math openly: the cost of sponsoring a single avreich for one month is $276. We ask every Yid to, at a minimum, sponsor a month, either at once or spread across a year at $23 a month. Those who can give more, the Rosh Yeshiva said, should give more. And if one can sponsor an avrech for a full year at $276 per month, Hakodosh Baruch Hu should shower you with blessings.

Harav Meir Tzvi Bergman shlit”a told the assembled gedolim and the tzibbur that no threat, of any kind, will move klal Yisrael to give up a single bochur, and urged tefillos for the gedolim who are set to travel to America in the coming days on behalf of Keren Olam Hatorah.

The Sanzer Rebbe shlit”a said that the gezeira against limud haTorah is the inner milchamah of the geulah, the war waged by those who want to uproot Torah from Klal Yisroel.

“When Yidden support lomdei Torah, the money takes on a tzurah of kedusha,” the Rebbe said. He invoked the Noam Elimelech on the passuk “v’tzarta hakesef b’yadcha,” explaining that the dollars given to hold up olam haTorah become, in shamayim, a kli of taharah that is mevarech both the giver and his home.

By the end of the kinus, the gedolim had set a course. A delegation of roshei yeshiva and gedolei Torah is preparing to leave for the United States next week, in what marks the third such mission of askanim and gedolim on behalf of the keren since the gezeiros began. The earlier missions, the gedolim noted, were met with support from American Yidden that no one in Eretz Yisroel had dared expect, with hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to keep yeshivos and kollelim open and to keep avreichim learning while the state walked away from its obligations.

Now, with the dollar weakened and need growing greater each day, the gedolim are calling for every Yid to take on a share of the burden.

{Matzav.com}

Israel moved a step closer to new national elections early Tuesday after the Knesset approved legislation to dissolve itself, setting in motion a process that could send voters to the polls as early as September.

The proposal to disband the 25th Knesset passed its first reading in the plenum with overwhelming support, receiving the backing of 106 lawmakers and drawing no opposition votes.

Following the vote, coalition chairman Ofir Katz, who introduced the legislation, outlined the anticipated election schedule.

“the projected timeframe for the elections is between September 8 and October 20.”

Having passed its initial reading, the bill will now return to the House Committee, where it will be prepared for the second and third readings required before becoming law. The official election date will not be determined until those final stages receive approval from the Knesset.

The vote comes on the heels of a session held two weeks ago, when lawmakers gave preliminary approval to 13 separate bills seeking to dissolve the Knesset. Those measures were submitted by members of both the coalition and nearly all opposition parties.

Although opposition factions backed all of the dissolution proposals, coalition leaders chose to move forward only with their own bill and a similar measure submitted by the Blue and White party, formally launching the political campaign season and beginning the march toward a national election.