Iran says renewed conflict with US ‘possible’, some ships seized by US after exiting Iranian ports, IRGC flex
DUBAI/
WEST PALM BEACH:
US President Donald Trump on Friday said the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates, but we are not playing games.”
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian military official has said renewed conflict with the US is “possible” after Donald Trump rejected the latest peace proposal from Tehran.
“Evidence has shown that the United States is not committed to any promises or agreements,” said Brig Gen Mohammad Jafar Asadi, spokesman for Iran’s military headquarters, in remarks carried by Iranian news agencies.
“Surprise measures are planned for the enemy, beyond their imagination,” Asadi said.
Official Iranian outlets also meanwhile restated an uncompromising position on navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
“With its dominance and control over nearly 2,000 kilometers of Iran’s coastline in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC (Revolutionary Guards) Navy will make this water area a source of livelihood and power for the dear Iranian people and a source of security and prosperity for the region,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded that freedom of navigation be restored through Hormuz since declaring a ceasefire early last month. But Iranian officials have responded that the strait will remain under Iran’s supervision.
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and the Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilisation last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure, as well as since the triple-tap attack on the Minab girls’ school in Iran.
An Iranian proposal so far rejected by US President Donald Trump would open shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and end the US blockade of Iran while leaving talks on Iran’s nuclear program for later, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.
Trump, who has said repeatedly that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, said on Friday he was not satisfied with the latest Iranian proposal for talks, while Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran was ready for diplomacy if the United States changes its approach.
Trump also said on Friday that “on a human basis,” he did not prefer the military course of action against Iran and told leaders in the US Congress that he did not need their permission to extend the war beyond a deadline set by law for that day because the ceasefire had “terminated” hostilities.
“Do we want to go and just blast the hell out of them and finish them forever? Or do we want to try and make a deal?” he told reporters at the White House when asked about his options.
Later on Friday, during a speech in Florida, Trump said the United States would not end its confrontation with Iran early, “and then have the problem arise in three more years.”
While saying repeatedly he is in no hurry, Trump is under domestic pressure to break Iran’s hold on the strait, which has choked off 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies and pushed up U.S. gasoline prices. Trump’s Republican Party faces the risk of a voter backlash over higher prices when the country votes in midterm congressional elections in November.
Trump spent Saturday in Florida – at his Mar-a-Lago resort and the Trump National Golf Club in nearby Jupiter. In the evening, he was due to visit another of his golf resorts, Trump National Doral outside Miami, which is hosting the PGA Cadillac Championship.
The United States and Israel suspended their bombing campaign against Iran four weeks ago, but appear no closer to a deal to end a war that has caused the biggest disruption ever to global energy supplies, roiled global markets and raised worries about the possibility of a wider global economic downturn.
Iran has been blocking nearly all shipping from the Gulf apart from its own for more than two months. Last month, the US imposed its own blockade of ships from Iranian ports.
Washington has repeatedly said it will not end the war, which has led to the deaths of thousands of people, without a deal that prevents Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon, the primary aim Trump cited when he launched strikes in February in the midst of nuclear talks. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential diplomacy, the senior Iranian official said Tehran believed its latest proposal to shelve nuclear talks for a later stage was a significant shift aimed at facilitating an agreement.
Under the proposal, the war would end with a guarantee that Israel and the United States would not attack again. Iran would open the Strait, and the United States would lift its blockade.
Future talks would then be held on curbs to Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions, with Iran demanding Washington recognize its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, even if it agrees to suspend it.
“Under this framework, negotiations over the more complicated nuclear issue have been moved to the final stage to create a more conducive atmosphere,” the official said.
Reuters and other news organizations already reported over the past week that Tehran was proposing to reopen the strait before nuclear issues were resolved. The official confirmed that this new timeline had now been spelled out in a formal proposal conveyed to the United States through mediators.
(With input from News Desk)
