Donald Trump warned that he is not willing to seek a deal to end the US-Israeli offensive against Iran and said that although he thought Tehran was willing to negotiate a ceasefire, the United States would continue to fight for better conditions.
Trump’s comments came as Iran launched new missile and drone attacks against Gulf countries and Israel, and Israeli and US warplanes launched new waves of strikes against Iran.
The conflict has plunged the Middle East into chaos, disrupted global air travel and disrupted the region’s oil exports, driving up fuel prices around the world.
Neither Tehran nor Washington seemed willing to moderate their rhetoric despite the rising death toll and rising oil prices following the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz sea lane.
Trump, speaking Saturday to NBC News, said the United States could bomb targets on Kharg Island, which is the site of Iran’s main oil export facility, once again “just for fun,” after U.S. warplanes attacked military facilities there on Friday.
“Iran wants to make a deal and I don’t want to make a deal because the terms are not good enough yet,” Trump said, adding that U.S. forces would step up attacks on the Iranian coast north of the strait to clear the way for oil shipments.
Experts say it will be extremely difficult for the United States to reopen the strait by military means alone as long as Iran retains the ability to attack or harass ships with missiles, drones or small boats.
Trump has called for other countries’ warships to help protect oil tankers passing through the strait, which typically carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies. More than 600 ships are trapped in the Red Sea.
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged other countries to refrain from any action that “could lead to an escalation and expansion of the conflict,” in a conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot, according to a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has promised – in a written statement – to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. But Trump dismissed this and suggested Khamenei might not even be in control, saying: “I don’t know if he’s alive. So far, no one has been able to prove it to him.”
Iran has admitted that Khamenei, 56, was wounded in the attack that opened the war on February 28 and killed his predecessor, his father, but has described the injuries as minor.
The Israeli military announced a wave of attacks against targets in western Iran, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard called Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, a criminal and vowed to hunt him down and kill him.
In Tehran, people were able to go about their workweek in the most normal environment since the start of the war, witnesses said. Traffic was busier than last week and some cafes and restaurants had reopened.
More than a third of the stalls at Tajrish bazaar, a popular shopping center in the north of the capital, were open five days before Nowruz, the Persian new year.
Some shoppers queued at ATMs to withdraw cash. The online operations of Banco Melli, one of the largest in the country, were paralyzed in recent days. In some places, passengers waited at bus stops, which had been virtually deserted since the start of the war.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, more than 1,300 people have died from US and Israeli attacks on Iran. This includes 223 women and 202 children, according to Iranian Health Ministry figures reported by Mizan, the judiciary’s official news agency.
The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran, most of them fleeing the capital and other cities in search of safety.
In a rare reference to the diplomacy being carried out, Araghchi told the London-based news outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Sunday that Iran was ready to consider any proposal that included “a complete end” to the war and said mediation efforts between Iran and its neighbors to de-escalate were continuing.
He gave no indication whether progress had been made and there was no independent confirmation of his claim, although Turkish officials have said they have made efforts to quickly end the conflict.
Violence has continued to break out in other parts of the region. The United States has urged its citizens to leave Iraq, where pro-Iran groups have launched attacks on the American embassy and bases housing Western military units, and there were reports of new attacks against potential US allies among Kurdish factions in the north of the country.
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia said separately on Sunday that they had intercepted new barrages of projectiles launched by Iran. Dubai has also been the target.
Iran has accused the United States of using “ports, docks and hideouts” in the United Arab Emirates to launch attacks on Kharg Island, without providing evidence. The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries that host US bases have denied allowing their land or airspace to be used for military operations against Iran.
In Israel, 12 people are reported to have been killed by Iranian missile fire. On Sunday, two people were slightly injured in the latest attack, doctors said. Loud booms shook windows in Jerusalem as interceptors shot down missiles.
Israel has accused Iran of using cluster munitions in its attacks on civilian areas.
More than 800 people have been reported killed in Israel’s latest offensive against Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Islamist militant movement in Lebanon that joined the conflict by launching missiles and drones into Israel to avenge the assassination of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Overnight attacks in southern Lebanon killed at least four people, Lebanese state media and the government said on Sunday.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Israel had attacked “an apartment in a residential building” in a northern district of the coastal city of Sidon, killing one person and starting a fire.
Southeast of Sidon, in the village of al-Qatrani, three people were killed in an overnight Israeli attack, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
Israeli military officials said their attacks were aimed at degrading Hezbollah’s military capabilities.
On Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar denied reports that Israel may soon hold direct talks with Lebanon and rejected claims that he had told the United States that it was running out of interceptors.
Sa’ar also said that Israel was “eye to eye” with the United States over the war with Iran and that the two allies were determined to continue until their goals were achieved.
“We want to eliminate Iran’s existential threats in the long term. We don’t want to go to another war every year,” he told reporters.
At least 13 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began, including six who died in a plane crash over Iraq last week.
