The president of the United States, Donald Trump, sends contradictory signals about . On the one hand, he maintains that the conflict “is almost over,” a comment that unleashed euphoria in the markets before their closure. On the other hand, he insists that the military campaign has yet to achieve all of its objectives, and will continue until Washington has ensured that Tehran will not have the capacity to attack Israel or the United States in the future.
Since the beginning of the offensive, Washington and, above all, Trump, have launched a series of contradictory arguments about the reasons for going to war and its objectives. Now the confusion also extends to when it can conclude. “It will end soon,” he insisted, “and if it starts again we will hit them even harder.” “They have no radars, no telecommunications, […] nor leaders. “We could leave it here or go further, and we are going to go further,” he said in a press conference at his golf club in Doral, on the outskirts of Miami.
For a president who measures his success by the rise or fall of the stock market, the global roller coaster in stock prices forced him to react. This Monday he has been talkative even by his loquacious standards, especially around closing hours on Wall Street. To the micro-interviews with an avalanche of media that have become common since the beginning of the offensive were added comments on their social network, Truth; a fifty-minute speech to Republican donors in which he alluded several times to the war, and his first press conference since the beginning of the attacks.
Most of his statements sought to try to reassure the markets. “If Iran does anything to stop the flow of oil in the Strait of Hormuz, it will be hit by the United States TWENTY TIMES HARDER than it has been so far,” he proclaimed in one of his last communications of the day, in Truth. While the Republican insists that Iran has suffered very hard blows, the Islamic Republic remains defiant around its new leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, son of the supreme leader killed in the first bombings, Ali Khamenei.
In his press conference, the president repeated that Washington “is well ahead” of the planned timetable to achieve its objectives in the war, as he had already announced a few hours before in a telephone interview for the CBS network that generated a 180-degree turnaround on Wall Street: the prospect of the end of the war caused the Dow Jones to close with increases of 0.5%, after having opened with a 1.5% decline after .
“The war is almost over,” he had declared to journalist Weijia Jiang, from the CBS television network. In the early days of the conflict, Trump had estimated the time his forces would need to achieve their objectives in Iran at about four or five weeks. Now he maintained that the campaign was “well ahead” of what was planned.
In his press conference he stressed the idea that the war “will be over very soon.” But he also repeated that the campaign will continue until Iran has been “totally and decisively defeated.” Asked if that “soon” meant this week, he was adamant: “no.”
As listed by the president, Iran now only has 10% of its previous missile and drone launch capacity, and has lost 51 of its warships. The United States has hit 5,000 targets and has begun to attack its enemy’s missile and drone factories, the weapon that has done the most damage.
At the beginning of the operation, his Administration had set as declared objectives the annihilation of the Navy and the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Also end the theocratic regime.
Trump has not wanted to comment on his plans regarding young Khamenei. In statements in previous days he had threatened to kill any named leader without his approval. Now he maintained that he is “disappointed” with the Iranian team. “We believe it is going to lead to more of the same problem” that the United States has with Iran, he noted.
Lifting sanctions on Russia
The White House tenant also seemed to point to lifting some sanctions on Russia to allow a greater flow of oil to reduce pressure on energy prices. “We are going to lift some oil-related sanctions to reduce prices. We have sanctions against some countries, and we will remove them until this is resolved.”
Before the press conference, Trump had spoken this Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine and Iran, he said. Trump described the telephone conversation as “a good call” and assured that the Russian leader “wants to be useful.”
The two leaders, according to Russian presidential advisor Yuri Ushakov, addressed in particular the events in Iran and Venezuela. The Russian leader made proposals to the American to quickly end the war against Iran, the senior official in Moscow said.
The conversation lasted approximately an hour and in it they addressed the conflict created in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as explained by the Russian president’s foreign advisor. “The conversation was serious, frank and constructive, as is usually the case in dialogues between Russian and American leaders. The emphasis was, naturally, on the situation of the conflict with Iran and the ongoing trilateral negotiations on Ukraine with the participation of the United States,” explained the diplomat, reports Javier G. Cuesta.
In his statements to CBS, the US president has assured that he is “thinking about taking control” of the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf and one of the key points for oil transit in the world: approximately a fifth of the global total is transported through that sea route. The war has come to close it in practice.
In his comments to CBS, Trump indicated that he has “no message” for Iran’s new leader. He also noted that he has another person in mind to replace him, although he did not specify who.
In his press conference, the Republican once again ruled out Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, whom he pointed out has lived in exile since the Islamic revolution of 1979. He noted that he prefers an “internal” candidate, who is already in Iran. Its model would be the one used in Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro’s vice president is now in charge of the country and collaborates with Washington. “I like the idea of someone inside because it works well,” he noted, “I think we have already demonstrated it in Venezuela.”
In previous days, the Republican had denied that the United States was responsible for the death of at least 175 people, most of them minors, in the explosion of a missile at a school in Minab (southern Iran). Instead, he had blamed the massacre on an Iranian projectile. But the images show that it was a Tomahawk, a US-made missile and that, outside the US, only a handful of other armies have; none of them combatants in this war. Even so, the American president wanted to throw things out.
According to him, another country, or even Iran, could have launched that Tomahawk. “It could be Iran, which also has Tomahawks,” he said, although that country does not have those weapons. These projectiles “are very common. They are sold to other countries, but we are investigating” what happened.
After Trump’s statements to the CBS journalist, the markets have reacted with euphoria and the indices have begun to rise after . Wall Street, which fell 1.5% at the opening, has made a 180-degree turn and rose 0.7%. The interview also caused Texas intermediate oil futures contracts to moderate to $85.73 per barrel, after closing at $94.77.
