Iran yesterday threatened to spread war beyond the Middle East if the US attacks again, after US President Donald Trump said he had come within an hour of restarting the military campaign.
Six weeks since Trump paused Operation Epic Fury for a ceasefire, talks to end the war have largely stalled.
Iran this week submitted a new offer to the US, but its public accounts of it repeat terms previously rejected by Trump, including demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, compensation for war damage, lifting of sanctions, release of frozen assets and the withdrawal of US troops from the area.
Trump on Monday, and again on Tuesday, said that he had come close to ordering a new bombing campaign, but had put it off at the last minute to give more time for diplomacy.
“I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to retaliate for any new attacks by striking countries in the Middle East that house US bases.
It yesterday suggested it would also hit targets further afield.
“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the promised regional war will extend beyond the region this time,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried on state media.
Iran has largely shut the Strait of Hormuz to all ships apart from its own since the US-Israeli campaign began in February, causing the biggest disruption to global energy supplies in history. The US last month responded with its own blockade of Iran’s ports.
Two giant Chinese tankers laden with about 4 million barrels of oil exited the strait yesterday, the latest signal that Iran is willing to ease its blockade for countries it considers friendly.
Iran had announced last week, while Trump was in Beijing for a summit, that it had reached an agreement to ease rules for Chinese ships.
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun yesterday said that a South Korean tanker was crossing the strait in cooperation with Iran.
Shipping monitor Lloyd’s List said that at least 54 ships had transited the strait last week, around double the number from the week before.
That is still only a tiny fraction of the 140 or so each day that typically crossed before the war.
Trump is under pressure to end the war, with soaring energy prices hurting his Republican Party ahead of congressional elections in November.
Since the ceasefire late last month, his public comments have veered from threats to restart bombing to declarations that a peace deal was at hand, often in the same breath.
On Tuesday he said the war would be over “very quickly.”
US Vice President J.D. Vance, who led the US delegation last month at the only round of peace talks so far, also talked up progress.
“We’re in a pretty good spot here,” Vance told a White House news briefing.
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