WASHINGTON – Donald Trump warned that he is not ready to seek a deal to end the war with Iran, as US ally Israel launched a new wave of strikes yesterday and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to hunt down and kill the Israeli leader. The US president, in an interview with NBC News, said he thought Tehran was keen to come to the table but that Washington would fight on for better terms and might bomb targets on Iran’s oil hub Kharg Island once, again, “just for fun”.
More than two weeks into the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic, neither side is moderating its rhetoric despite a mounting death toll and economic damage from soaring oil prices caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz sea lane.
“Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” Trump told NBC News, warning that US forces would step up strikes on the Iranian coast north of the strait to clear a path for oil shipments to resume.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has — in a written statement — vowed to keep Hormuz closed. But Trump dismissed this and suggested his foe might not even be in control, saying: “I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody has been able to show him.”
Iran said on Saturday that “there is no problem with the new supreme leader”, even though he has yet to appear in public.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced a wave of strikes against targets in Western Iran, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards branded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a criminal and vowed that they would pursue and kill him.
The United States has urged its citizens to leave Iraq, where pro-Iranian groups have launched attacks on the US embassy and bases hosting western military units.
Despite the hardline talk from all sides, the citizens of Tehran were able to go about their work week in the most normal atmosphere since the start of the war on February 28, when US-Israeli strikes killed the previous supreme leader, Mojtaba’s father Ali Khamenei.
Traffic was busier than last week and some cafes and restaurants had reopened.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi yesterday urged other countries to refrain from any action that could widen the scope of the war with Israel and the United States.
In a phone call with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, Araghchi called on other countries to “refrain from any action that could lead to escalation and expansion of the conflict”, according to an Iranian foreign ministry statement.
His remarks came after US President Donald Trump called for other nations’ warships to help protect world oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been virtually blocked by the threat of Iranian attacks.
Israel has approved an US$827-million emergency budget allocation for military purchases, Israeli media reported yesterday, as the war with Iran entered its third week.
The 2.6-billion-shekel package was approved over the weekend by cabinet ministers during a telephone meeting, the daily Haaretz reported.
It will be used for “security purchases” and to address “urgent needs”, it said, without providing further details.
A finance ministry document circulated to all ministers and reported by several media outlets, including Channel 12, said that “given the intensity of the fighting” the additional budget allocation was necessary.
“An urgent and immediate need has arisen to provide an operational response, including the acquisition of munitions, the procurement of advanced weapons systems and the replenishment of critical combat stocks,” the document said.
The document added that the move constituted “an exceptional emergency decision intended solely to address needs arising from the conduct of the fighting”.
The funds will be drawn from the state budget, totalling US$222 billion and approved by the government on 12 March, and expected to be adopted by the Knesset by March 31, according to the reports.
– Nampa/AFP