US President Trump is threatening new attacks on Iran and ruling out further negotiations with Tehran. However, at the NATO summit he said he did not expect long-term hostilities.
After the cancellation of the framework agreement with Iran, US President Donald Trump threatened the regime in Tehran with a massive military strike and occupation of the strategically important Kharg Island. “This could be a major attack,” Trump said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara. If necessary, the US will also shut down civilian infrastructure such as the country’s power plants and hydroelectric dams. But he doesn’t really want that, Trump continued. He had already made both threats at earlier stages of the war.
Counterattacks on Bahrain and Kuwait
On Wednesday evening, the US military had already bombed dozens of targets in Iran. The US also reinstated sanctions on Iranian oil. According to media reports, the Iranian military announced a response to the attacks. Soon after, the army of the Gulf state of Kuwait, which is an ally of Washington, reported hostile fire to Kuwait. Sirens also blared in Bahrain early in the morning.
“You break the agreement every day,” Trump criticized, referring to the framework agreement reached in mid-June and now dissolved. The US attacks were in response to Iranian attacks on merchant ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran uses drones and missiles for this purpose.
However, following the NATO summit, the Republican said that the attacks would not last long. “I think it will happen very quickly,” Trump said in Ankara. Moreover, he does not expect the war to resume. “I don’t think it will start again,” he stressed.
Instead, he expects the conflict to be resolved soon. However, he did not explain exactly how this would happen.
Trump rules out negotiations with Iran
Trump initially rejected new negotiations: “I think it’s over. I don’t want anything to do with them anymore. They are scum,” he responded to a question about a ceasefire with Tehran. He considers it a waste of time to deal with Iranian representatives. “They are liars.”
Again criticism of NATO countries
Trump also announced he would end trade relations with Spain as the country rejects a NATO target of five percent of gross domestic product for defense spending and has given up US bases in its war with Iran. “Spain is a lost cause, a terrible NATO partner,” Trump said at a news conference. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez responded to the criticism with reassurance. He accepted Trump’s words “with calm and patience,” he told reporters.
Trump also again included Germany among the countries that abandoned the United States in the war against Iran. Before Trump’s outburst, Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for a good “Ankara spirit.” “I am confident that thanks to Ankara we will have a new spirit in NATO, which will make NATO stronger, which will make NATO more cohesive.”
Balance between the words of Rutte and Erdogan
After the summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte emphasized the cohesion of the military alliance. “We feel like this union is closer than ever before,” he said.
On the one hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised Trump’s decisive stance in efforts to achieve lasting peace with Iran. At the same time, the Turkish head of state thanked his allies Germany, Spain, Italy and the United States for their support in the field of air defense during the war with Iran.