(Agencies): US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Iran took a long time to negotiate an agreement to end the war in the Middle East, threatening to “pay the price” for that, after the two sides exchanged attacks in the region, in a new violation of the ceasefire.
Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform: “The tyrant of the Middle East is dead!” They were too late to negotiate an agreement that would have been in their interest, and now they have to pay the price!” He added, “The Iranian army is in a state of complete chaos. “Most of it, like the Navy and the Air Force, no longer exists… They were badly defeated.”
Trump wrote in a subsequent post: “The Fake News Media refuses to publish reports on the effectiveness of the US naval blockade, which is the most successful blockade in the history of naval warfare.”
He continued: “Nothing happens unless we want it to.” It’s a steel wall! “Iran does no business at all, doesn’t pay its army, doesn’t pay any of its bills, and is quickly becoming a failed state.”
Trump stated, in a later interview with Fox News, that he was about to issue orders for new raids targeting Iranian power plants and bridges if Tehran was not ready to sign an agreement. !
Trump’s statements come at a time when an informed official told Reuters: Qatari negotiators went to Tehran yesterday morning as part of efforts to reach an agreement after consultations with the United States. In the past few weeks, the Republican president has vacillated between public warnings and optimism that an agreement is imminent.
His latest comments revived threats to attack Iranian infrastructure that international law experts said raised human rights concerns when they were first issued in March.
Trump told Fox Network: Iran had an opportunity to sign an agreement that would guarantee its survival, and that he may continue to launch more raids due to the slow pace of negotiations, in response to a question about the latest Iranian attacks yesterday on Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan after the American raids on Iranian targets around the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump made statements to reporters on Tuesday, when he said: Negotiations on a permanent settlement to end the war are in their “final stages” and can be completed in “two or three days.” !
The escalation increases doubts about the possibility of reaching an agreement to end the war that broke out on February 28, with American-Israeli raids on Iran.
On Tuesday, an American official said: An Apache helicopter was shot down by an Iranian attack drone, and Trump said earlier: The two American pilots who were on board the helicopter were not harmed.
The US military said it targeted Iranian air defense sites, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites. The strikes continued for about 4 hours before US Central Command announced that they had ended.
An American official said: About 20 Iranian targets were bombed.
Official Iranian media, citing the Revolutionary Guard, reported that Qeshm Island and the coastal city of Sirik in the Strait of Hormuz were attacked, and quoted local sources and residents that explosions were heard in Bandar Abbas, and then later near Jask at the entrance to the Strait.
In Tehran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi confirmed yesterday that the Iranian armed forces will not leave any attacks or threats without a response, after he had stressed on Tuesday that foreign forces deployed in the region are “always exposed” to the risk of being caught in the crossfire.
