US President Donald Trump has accused Iran of deliberately stalling peace negotiations in the hope of securing better terms after November’s midterm elections. Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump claimed Tehran believed it could “outwait” him by running down the clock. “They thought they were going to outwait me, you know, ‘we’ll outwait him, he’s got the midterms’,” he said.
Trump insisted the tactic would fail and said Iran “wants very much to make a deal”. He pointed to Iran’s economic woes, including 250% inflation and a broken economic system, as reasons for Tehran to compromise. However, he acknowledged that current talks had not yet produced a satisfactory agreement, warning: “Either that, or we will just have to finish the job.”
The president also addressed the status of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital energy conduit. He rejected any arrangement that would give Iran or Oman control, stating: “The strait is going to be open to everybody. Nobody is going to control it.” He added that a potential deal would see the strait reopened immediately, but threatened military action if necessary.
Trump’s remarks came amid contradictory signals on the peace process. At the weekend he said a deal was close, but on Monday US forces struck Iranian targets, reportedly killing four members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Negotiations are said to be continuing despite the strikes.
The president also appeared to link a final agreement to the expansion of the Abraham Accords, which normalise relations between Israel and Arab states. He said Arab allies “owe” it to the US to sign, but later backtracked when asked if the Iran deal was contingent on further signatories. “I don’t want to say that,” he said.
Trump claimed his administration had effectively brought about regime change in Iran through the assassination of key leaders, including the supreme leader. “We are dealing with a completely different group of people than we were at the beginning,” he said, though analysts note that the current leadership is considered more hardline.
