(AFP) – Iran’s chief negotiator said Wednesday the United States wanted to restart the Middle East war after President Donald Trump said he would attack again unless Tehran agreed to a peace deal. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who warned of a “forceful response,” was speaking after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said any renewed war would spread far beyond the Middle East.
“The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” Ghalibaf said in an audio message carried by Iranian media. Trump, however, left the door open to diplomacy on Wednesday, telling reporters the United States was in the “final stages” of negotiations with Iran.
“We’ll either have a deal or we’re going to do some things that are a little bit nasty. But hopefully that won’t happen,” he said. “I’m in no hurry. I just, ideally, I’d like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot,” he added. A ceasefire on April 8 brought a halt to the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, which has roiled the global economy. However, with Washington and Tehran seemingly reluctant to resume fighting, a war of words has taken its place.
Trump has repeatedly threatened Tehran with renewed military action, while Iranian officials have hit back with their own warnings. The Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday: “If the aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will this time spread far beyond the region, and our devastating blows will crush you.”
Nevertheless, despite sporadic bursts of violence, the two countries have continued to take part in diplomatic exchanges, mediated by Pakistan, aimed at bringing a formal end to the war. Citing diplomatic sources, Iran’s official IRNA news agency announced a visit to Tehran by Pakistan’s interior minister, his second in less than a week.
Global oil prices fell more than five percent on Wednesday on hopes of a deal. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan praised Trump on Wednesday for his decision to “give diplomacy a chance” and urged Iran to seize “the opportunity to avoid the dangerous implications of escalation.” Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant Colonel Eyal Zamir, meanwhile, said the military was at its highest alert level “and prepared for any development.”
On Tuesday, Trump insisted the US retained the upper hand and that Iran was desperate for peace. “You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you’re beating them badly. They come to the table; they’re begging to make a deal,” he said. “I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit. I’m not sure yet.”
The US leader is himself under pressure, with rising energy costs beginning to bite at home. While the ceasefire brought a halt to the fighting, it has not reopened the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes. The future of the waterway is a key sticking point in negotiations, but without a deal, fears are growing for the global economy as pre-war stockpiles of oil are used up.
Rising fuel prices have caused widespread pain, with protests erupting in Kenya, which, like many African countries, is dependent on imports from the Gulf and where the public transport system has ground to a halt. “It’s unfortunate that we lost four Kenyans in today’s violence, which also saw more than 30 people injured,” Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen told reporters.
The strait is also a conduit for around a third of global fertilizer, the loss of which is pushing up food prices and could cause shortages. On Wednesday, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned of “a severe global food price crisis” and a “systemic agrifood shock” from the closure of the strait.
– AFP bureaus in Tehran and Washington
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