Trump says Iran war is effectively over: the war with Iran is “militarily effectively over”, Donald Trump declared on Monday, even as the American naval blockade of Iranian oil exports remained in place and Tehran repeated the conditions it wants met before any nuclear negotiation begins.
Trump says Iran war is effectively over: what Washington claims
After meeting Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, at the White House, Trump says Iran war is effectively over. He said the United States was maintaining the status quo. The blockade, he made clear, continues, and further strikes remain possible, though he judged them highly unlikely if progress is made toward a strong agreement, repeating in public what he had said in a Sunday telephone interview with CNN.
Trump says Iran war is effectively over, but Tehran holds to its conditions
Tehran’s position has not moved, even though Trump says Iran war is effectively over. Before any nuclear talks, Iran demands an end to the blockade of its ports, the lifting of sanctions, the unfreezing of its assets and compensation for war damage. None of those conditions has been met, and no agreement has been signed.
The military picture also sits uneasily beside the word “over”. American forces carried out limited strikes on Iranian air defences at least twice in the past week, and on Saturday fired on a commercial vessel accused of trying to run the blockade. The Strait of Hormuz, the artery for a large share of the world’s traded oil, remains blocked.
For Asia, the stakes are immediate, even though Trump says Iran war is effectively over. The region’s economies are the Gulf’s biggest customers, and every week of disruption around Hormuz feeds into freight costs, fuel prices and inflation from Karachi to Tokyo. A confirmed de-escalation would let Asian refiners and governments breathe. A declaration alone does not reopen a strait.
What Trump offered on Monday was therefore a signal, not a settlement, even though Trump says Iran war is effectively over. If the guns stay quiet and the blockade becomes the main instrument of pressure, the conflict moves from war to siege economics, a phase that could last long after the shooting stops. Tehran, holding demands it knows Washington has not accepted, appears in no hurry to call that peace.
Source: AAP