Denying US President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington was close to making a deal with Tehran over “free oil and Strait of Hormuz, Iran on Friday mocked him and claimed that American leader was “building castles in the air”.ย
Sharing a 15-second video of Trump in which he could be heard saying Iran would give “free oil and free Strait of Hormuz” to the US, the Middle East nation’s state-owned broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) ridiculed the American leader, while sharing a Persian proverb.
“Building castles in the air!” the IRIB’s X (formerly Twitter) post read. “Or in Persian we have a similar proverb: ‘The camel dreams of cottonseed; sometimes gulping it down, sometimes eating it grain by grain!'”
Earlier, Trump claimed that the US and Iran are very close to a deal to end the war in the Middle East that started on February 28. Briefing the reporters at White House ahead of going to Las Vegas, he said a “very successful negotiation” is going on between the two sides.
The failed Islamabad talks
Notably, his remarks came after failed talks in Islamabad, Pakistan. The US was led by Trump’s deputy, JD Vance, in the talks which failed to end the deadlock with Tehran after the Iranian delegation didn’t agree to the certain demands raised by Washington, including stopping its nuclear programme.
However, Trump’s remarks are contrary to this, as on Thursday he even claimed that Iran has agreed to give its enriched uranium to the US. The US wants Iran to end its nuclear programme, with Trump and his administration regularly reiterating that the Islamic Republic cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.ย
“And I said, we’re in there for two months, and you know what? We’re gonna have victory very shortly,” the US President, who also hinted at going to Pakistan if the deal with Iran is a success, said. “And against a very tough, smart country. These people were fighters, and you know, I don’t want to claim it before the fact, but they (Iran) have no Navy left. 158 ships at the bottom of the sea. 158, think of it.”
The US-Iran war has disrupted the global supply chains, with Tehran blocking the Strait of Hormuz from where one-fifth of the global crude supplies pass through. The world has called for opening the Hormuz, while reiterating that the US and Iran must resolve their differences through dialogue and diplomacy.ย ย