Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US President Donald Trump has said he believes the ceasefire with Iran is over, adding that he is not sure he wants a deal any more and that the US should “finish the job”. At the same time, he has said continued attacks do not mean a return to full-scale war or a long military campaign.
Trump’s shifting remarks, along with his approval of back-to-back military strikes, have raised fresh questions about what comes next in the conflict, just weeks after difficult diplomacy produced an initial deal between the two countries. Mediators are now trying to save the interim arrangement as tensions rise around attacks on ships carrying oil and natural gas through the Strait of Hormuz.
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On Wednesday, Trump warned that a new round of US attacks was coming, while also trying to play down suggestions of a return to war. Hours later, the US military said it was carrying out new attacks on Iran that were meant to “further degrade their ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”. Earlier, Trump said, “Anything that happens is going to happen very fast. We’re not looking for a long time.”
A regional intelligence official involved in mediation efforts said the conflict had reached a critical stage as mistrust deepened on both sides, but added that high-level communication was continuing round the clock to salvage the ceasefire. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Qatar and Egypt’s intelligence chief were leading the effort. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country hosted the NATO summit that ended on Wednesday, and leaders from Saudi Arabia are also involved, the official said.
According to the official, the US is angry over attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and is accusing Iran of dragging its feet in talks on limiting its nuclear programme. Those talks were seen as a key next step in turning last month’s interim deal into a lasting end to the war. Tehran, however, says Washington is violating the agreement over the strait and is also failing to ensure that a ceasefire in Lebanon, including an Israeli withdrawal, is being implemented, the official said.
Michael Eisenstadt, a former US military analyst who now directs the Military and Security Studies Programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said, “we’re still in negotiating mode, no matter what the president says.” He added, “This is part of negotiating, and declaring that the MOU is over is part of the negotiation as well,” referring to the memorandum of understanding on which the ceasefire was based.
Trump, however, has publicly made clear that he is losing interest in preserving the ceasefire. “I think it’s over,” he said during the NATO summit in Ankara, adding, “We can play games, but I’m not sure I want to make a deal,” and saying the US military might “just finish the job.” Iran’s lead negotiator and Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said the Trump administration had repeatedly violated the terms of the initial pact, forcing Iran to respond. “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don’t fold,” Qalibaf posted on X.
Pakistan, which helped broker the ceasefire, said renewed conflict was in “no one’s interest” and urged both sides to honour their commitments. “There is no alternative to continued engagement, dialogue and diplomacy to achieve shared goal of peace in the region,” its foreign ministry said in a statement.
Trump also attacked Iran’s leaders in personal terms, calling them “scum” and “sick people”. Last month, however, he had described Iran’s leadership as “very rational” and “nice to deal with”, while also calling them “smart people”. Speaking at an event in Milwaukee on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance, who led US efforts to secure the initial deal with Tehran, said Iran was “well behaved for about a week”. He said it had lately begun attacking the strait and added, “If they shoot at ships, we’re going to knock the hell out of them.”
It remained unclear whether Trump’s latest threats were a negotiating tactic or a sign of a further military escalation. Before the first two-week ceasefire in April, he had stepped up his warnings, saying US forces would bomb Iranian bridges, roads and power plants, and posted online, “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” He repeated harsh threats before the tentative 60-day deal was reached last month. For now, as new strikes and sharp words deepen uncertainty, mediation efforts are continuing in an attempt to keep the ceasefire from collapsing completely.
With PTI Inputs
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
