Once again, it’s been a crazy weekend for the US-Iran war as it looked (looks?) like the whole thing could fall apart.
First, the opening of the Strait on Friday turned out to be a false start at best as Iran reversed it after the US refused to lift its blockade. Then, Iran fired on some ships that were attempting the transit.
Today, Trump is back to threatening to blow everything up. He wrote on Truth Social:
Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz — A Total
Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement! Many of them were aimed at a
French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn’t nice,
was it? My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will
be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations. Iran recently announced
that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our
BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and
they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million
Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing. In fact, many Ships are
headed, right now, to the U.S., Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to load
up, compliments of the IRGC, always wanting to be “the tough guy!” We’re
offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it
because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every
single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE
GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t
take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which
should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47
years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END! President DONALD
J. TRUMP
But if you sift out all the rhetoric here, there is one important piece of news and its “My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan — They will
be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations”. That’s the first in-person meeting since last weekend when Vance stormed out.
Amidst all this, it’s not really clear who is in charge in Iran as there are leaks on every negotiating front and then some hawk or IRGC official claims it’s fake news.
We do know who is in charge on the US side though and Trump spoke just now with an ABC reporter and said “it will happen” on a peace deal. The report says that Trump said Iran had committed a “serious violation” of the ceasefire but he still thinks he can get a deal.
“We’re offering a fair and reasonable deal, and I hope they take it,” he said. The he reiterated the usual threats.
Obviously this is a worse situation than it looked on Friday morning but we’re still a few hours until the open.
This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.