Washington (United States) (AFP) – President Donald Trump warned on Wednesday that he would renew US attacks on Iran, saying Tehran had taken too long to agree a deal to end the Middle East war and accusing its negotiators of “playing us for suckers.” The remarks came after Iran and the US once again traded fire following the downing of an American helicopter, further straining a ceasefire that took effect in April but has been marked by sporadic flare-ups of violence. The exchange drew international calls for restraint on the eve of the World Cup, which the US is co-hosting and Iran is participating in, including from the head of the United Nations who cautioned against a return to “full war.”
“We hit them hard yesterday. We’re going to hit them again hard today,” Trump told reporters. “We were really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along, they keep playing us for suckers.” The US leader had said on Tuesday that talks to agree a peace deal were in the “final throes,” but he offered a different assessment the following day. “Iran is all talk and no action,” he said. “They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!”
In a sign that diplomacy was continuing however, negotiators from Qatar — which along with Pakistan has been assisting in mediation efforts — traveled to Tehran on Wednesday “to meet with the Iranians in an effort to bridge the remaining gaps,” a diplomat with knowledge of the situation said. The war, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, threw the region into chaos and rattled global markets before the shaky truce began. The conflict has sent energy prices skyrocketing after Tehran retaliated by virtually closing the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil normally passes.
On Wednesday, Trump said the US military secretly helped 100 million barrels of oil pass through the contested strait.
– Warning to the Gulf –
Iran said it had attacked American bases in Jordan and Bahrain on Wednesday after the US carried out strikes on the Islamic republic in retaliation for the downing of a helicopter. The Apache was the second crewed aircraft that Washington has confirmed to have been shot down by Iran during the war. Its two crew members were rescued, the US military said. Bahrain said it intercepted and destroyed “a number of Iranian aerial attacks,” while Jordan’s military said it shot down five missiles, with no casualties or material damage. The Kuwaiti military also said its air defenses were engaging “hostile aerial targets.” Tehran’s foreign ministry “reiterated the legal and moral responsibility” of its neighbors not to allow the US or Israel to use their territory for attacks.
US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees American forces in the Middle East, said on X that it had earlier “struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.” An American warplane also fired on and disabled a tanker in the Gulf of Oman that was attempting to transport oil from Iran in violation of a US blockade of Iranian ports, the US military said on Wednesday. The US also carried out strikes that damaged two reservoirs supplying areas of the Iranian port town of Sirik — though the water company said on Wednesday that water supplies had been restored.
“Critical infrastructures are the lifeblood of the people. Threats to target them… are not a show of strength but a sign of desperation,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on X. The violence sparked calls for de-escalation from Iranian allies Russia and China. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman called on both sides to “stop intensifying the conflict and escalating the situation.”
– ‘We’ve packed our things’ –
Iran has insisted any deal to end the war must include a truce in Lebanon, which was drawn into the conflict when Iran-backed Hezbollah militants within its borders fired rockets at Israel on March 2. Israel responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion that have killed more than 3,600 people, while exchanges of fire with Hezbollah have continued despite a nominal truce. On Wednesday, a medical source told AFP that Israeli strikes on south Lebanon had killed 12 people. A strike hit the center of Sidon, with an AFP correspondent seeing a car burning and emergency personnel heading to the scene after hearing a blast.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, called on the Lebanese people to join Israel’s fight against Hezbollah, saying their country had been taken “hostage” by the group. On Tuesday, the Israeli military had told the entire southern city of Tyre to evacuate. “We’ve packed our things, and we’re leaving,” Tyre resident Elias Barbour told AFP. “What have we done wrong? What are we supposed to do?”
© 2024 AFP
