expletive-laden Easter Sunday warning<\/a> to strike Iran\u2019s vital infrastructure if Tehran does not agree to open the Strait of Hormuz by 5 p.m. PDT on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\u201cThe entire country can be taken out in one night and that night might be tomorrow night,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n
Mediators from Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey sent the United States and Iran a draft proposal of the 45-day ceasefire on Friday, the Associated Press reported. Its prospects seemed dim amid the president\u2019s threats and a lukewarm response from Iranian leaders, who dismissed the president\u2019s diplomatic overtures as \u201cunrealistic\u201d and denying direct talks with the United States.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, saying Monday that the American demands were \u201cboth highly excessive and unusual, as well as illogical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Trump continued to assert that Iranian leadership has been negotiating in good faith. He characterized newly installed leaders as an improvement over their predecessors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people that we are negotiating with now on behalf of Iran are much more reasonable,\u201d he said Monday. <\/p>\n
Trump declined to comment further on the ceasefire proposal at the news conference, but told reporters that Iran is negotiating ahead of his Tuesday deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you they\u2019re negotiating, we think in good faith,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe are going to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president did not say whom the United States is negotiating with, but said the most difficult challenge so far has been establishing a reliable channel of communicating with Iranian officials who he said have \u201cno method of communicating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also declined to say whether he was prepared to offer Iran assurances to wind down the conflict, or whether he would escalate by following through with his threats to bomb critical Iranian infrastructure, leaving the door open to both diplomacy and military action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t tell you \u2014 it depends on what they do. This is a critical period,\u201d he said,<\/p>\n
Central to the negotiations is Iran\u2019s control of the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point that, if left blockaded, could continue driving oil prices higher and further destabilizing global energy markets.<\/p>\n
Trump, in characteristically unorthodox fashion, floated the possibility of the United States seizing operational control of the waterway and charging tolls for passage, a proposal that he provided without much detail.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t we?\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe have a concept where we\u2019ll charge tolls.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also mused openly about seizing Iranian oil, as he has in recent social media posts in which he floated the idea of using the war to claim Iranian energy resources. He acknowledged public pressure was holding him back from that course.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately the American people would like to see us come home,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it were up to me, I\u2019d take the oil, keep the oil and make plenty of money.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Washington is also demanding the permanent decommissioning of Iranian nuclear sites and an end to its uranium enrichment programs. The proposal also requires Iran to halt support for regional proxies and accept strict ballistic missile limits. <\/p>\n
In exchange, the United States says it will provide sanctions relief and assistance with civilian energy production, according to media reports. <\/p>\n
Speaking at the White House Easter Egg Roll earlier Monday, Trump showed no signs of softening his posture to bring \u201chell\u201d to Iran if a deal doesn\u2019t materialize.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are obliterating their country. And I hate to do it, but we are obliterating. And they just don\u2019t want to say uncle. … And if they don\u2019t, then they\u2019ll have no bridges, they\u2019ll have no power plants, they\u2019ll have nothing,\u201d he said, adding ominously that \u201cthere are other things that are worse than those two.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran has warned of \u201cmore severe and expansive\u201d retaliations if Trump follows through on the threats. <\/p>\n
Also at Monday\u2019s briefing, Trump celebrated the dramatic rescue of the American officer whose fighter jet was downed by Iran last week. He told reporters the operation to retrieve the wounded officer from \u201cone of the toughest areas in Iran\u201d was possible with a mix of \u201ctalent\u201d and \u201cluck.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president, however, was angered that a news outlet, which he did not name, reported that the weapons system officer had gone missing and was stranded behind enemy lines. Trump vowed to root out the source of that information, including by threatening to jail the journalist who broke the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to find that leaker because that is a sick person,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe are going to find out, it is national security. The person who did the story will go to jail if he doesn\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also Monday, Israel struck Iran\u2019s largest petrochemical facility in Asaluyeh and killed Gen. Majid Khademi, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 intelligence organization.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military also hit three Iranian airports, purportedly targeting dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian air force. <\/p>\n
Iran responded with missile strikes targeting Haifa, Israel, and energy infrastructure in Kuwait and Bahrain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump said Monday that the United States and Iran are at a \u201ccritical point\u201d in negotiating a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14478,2504,21686,102,34,681,5422,14180,722,16183,1219,6933,392,21680,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-54732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-bridge","9":"tag-control","10":"tag-draft-proposal","11":"tag-hormuz","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-monday","14":"tag-night","15":"tag-power-plant","16":"tag-president-trump","17":"tag-reporter","18":"tag-strait","19":"tag-threat","20":"tag-trump","21":"tag-tuesday-deadline","22":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116359633439339199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}