WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that progress has been made in “serious discussions” with Iran about ending the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, but warned that the United States will destroy Iranian energy sites and infrastructure if an agreement is not reached in the near future.
Trump, swinging from claims of diplomatic progress to renewed threats of destruction, said in a post on Truth Social that there had been “significant progress” in talks with Tehran, but warned that if they failed to reach an agreement, he would order the bombing of Iranian power plants, oil infrastructure and potential desalination plants. The president has repeatedly threatened such attacks in recent weeks, but has backed down, at a time when the global economy is suffering from risks to energy supplies.
Despite Trump’s claim that the United States is in talks with a “new, more rational regime” in Iran, there has been no clear progress in the negotiations. Iran denied holding substantive talks with the United States and rejected the Trump administration’s conditions as unreasonable.
The war raged, attracting many people middle East, sending oil and gas Prices Significant rise and break in political support for Trump at home.
As Trump seeks to find an end to a conflict he originally thought would last four to five weeks, he has alternately narrowed his goals — claiming on Sunday that “regime change” in Iran has already been achieved — and raised the prospect of escalation, ordering thousands more US troops.
US forces to the Middle East, including Marines and special operations forces.
Trump said on Sunday that Iran had agreed to allow 20 more oil cargo ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, where a blockade imposed by Tehran has closed a vital route for oil, gas and fertilizer shipments.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said that Iran “is not happy at all that people in other countries are facing difficulties due to fuel and supplies.” food Prices,” and urged those countries to put pressure on Israel and the United States to end their attacks on Iran.
On Monday, two Chinese-owned commercial ships crossed the waterway, according to ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic. The platform said that the crossings provided an initial indication that Iran may loosen its stranglehold on the strait. But a short time later, Trump renewed his threats to bomb Iran’s “power plants, oil wells, and Kharg Island,” from which Iran exports the majority of its oil, if talks on ending the war fail.