Donald Trump again threatened on Tuesday to strike Iran if an agreement was not found with this country, with the Iranian army promising to open “new fronts” if the United States resumed its attacks.
The American president repeated that he hoped not to have to go to war. “But we might have to give them another big hit. I’m not sure yet,” he told reporters at the White House.
When one of them asked him how long he was prepared to wait for Iran to come to the negotiating table, he remained evasive: “Two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something like that, maybe at the beginning of the week next.”
Qatar had earlier called for “more time” for diplomacy to resolve a conflict which has left thousands dead, especially in Iran and Lebanon, where pro-Iranian Hezbollah operates.
Mr. Trump said on Monday that he had canceled at the last moment a new attack against Iran planned for the next day, this Tuesday, according to him.
He had never spoken about this planned attack before publishing a message on his Truth Social platform in which he explained that he had renounced a resumption of hostilities at the request of the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who, according to him, consider the conclusion of an agreement possible.
“There’s a lot of back and forth” with the Iranian side, said US Vice President JD Vance during a press briefing at the White House, citing “good progress.”
“In the end, we will either reach an agreement or we will not,” he said, repeating that Washington had “its finger on the trigger.”
“Bêtise”
“If the enemy commits the stupidity of falling again into the trap of the Zionists and committing a new aggression against our beloved Iran, we will open new fronts against it,” warned the spokesperson for the Iranian army, Mohammad Akraminia, on Tuesday, quoted by the Iranian news agency Isna.
The unclaimed attack carried out on Sunday against a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates was condemned on Tuesday by the entire UN Security Council, including Russia. Earlier today, the Emirates claimed that the drones which carried out these strikes came from Iraq, where pro-Iranian groups are present.
Since the entry into force of a ceasefire on April 8, after almost 40 days of strikes launched on February 28 by the United States and Israel, negotiations have been underway to try to find an agreement, but the positions of Washington and Tehran remain very distant, particularly on the nuclear side.
Monday morning, Iranian diplomacy declared having responded to a new proposal from the United States aimed at breaking the deadlock. She reiterated her demands, calling in particular for the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad and the lifting of international sanctions suffocating its economy.
Clashes in Lebanon
On the other hand, the American government wants to ensure that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.
Iranian media have denounced the “excessive conditions” formulated by the United States in their latest offer. According to the Fars agency, Washington demands that Iran maintain only one nuclear site in operation and transfer its stock of highly enriched uranium to the United States.
In the Gulf, Tehran continues to control the strategic Strait of Hormuz, creating strong economic disruptions felt thousands of km away, while the American army continues the blockade of Iranian ports.
On the Lebanese front, the situation shows no sign of calming despite the truce declared since April 17 between Hezbollah and Israel.
The Israeli army carried out new rounds of air and artillery strikes in the south of the country.
These strikes left 19 dead on Tuesday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Hezbollah, for its part, reported clashes between its fighters and Israeli soldiers, still in the south.
An NGO also announced on Tuesday the return to the United States of a man of Iranian origin who served a ten-year prison sentence in Iran, where he had been convicted of espionage.
