US President Donald Trump on Tuesday stated that he โdid not want to extend aย ceasefire with Iran and added that the US was in a โstrong negotiating position and would end โup with a great โ deal. “I don’t want to do that. โWe don’t have that much time,” โTrump said when asked about the possibility of extending the ceasefire during an interview with CNBC.
I do not want to extend the ceasefire: Trumpย
โI do not want to extend the ceasefire. I think we are going to end up with a great deal. They have no choice,โ he said. In the meanwhile, Washington expressed confidence that talks โwith Iran will go ahead in โPakistan, and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was โconsidering โ joining.
โWe are totally loaded up; we are much more powerful than we were before the ceasefire. We used the ceasefire to restock, and they have probably done a little restocking. We totally control the Strait of Hormuz,โ he said.
He said the US caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it that werenโt very nice. โA gift from China, perhapsโI donโt know. I am surprised. I thought I had an understanding with President Xi,โ he said.
Trump says US negotiators will be in Pakistan for talks with Iran
Earlier, Trump said the US negotiators will be in Pakistan for talks with Iran, resuming negotiations after Iran reversed its decision to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The escalating stand-off over the critical choke point threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy and push the two countries toward renewed conflict, even as mediators expressed confidence that a new deal is within reach. The strait is closed until the US blockade is lifted, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy said Saturday night.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opsns fire on a tanker transiting Strait of Hormuz
Hours earlier, two gunboats from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard opened fire on a tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said. It reported that the tanker and crew were safe, without identifying the vessel or its destination.
Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait and supply constraints are driving prices higher once again. Meanwhile, a 10-day truce between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon appeared to be holding.
The fighting in the Middle East conflict, now approaching the two-month mark, has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, nearly 2,300 in Lebanon, 23 civilians and 15 soldiers in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states.Thirteen US service members have also been killed.