Iran and Trump in and Out Again~US awaits Answer From Tehran but You Can Bet Trump Won't Like it
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| A billboard in Tehran showing Iran’s three supreme leaders on Saturday.Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times |
New York Times
The United States was waiting on Thursday for Iran to convey its response to the latest American proposal to end the war, after public messages from top-ranking officials on both sides suggested a burst of behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity.
Business leaders, consumers, politicians, shipping companies and many others around the world have also been watching closely for signs of a breakthrough. The conflict, which has dragged on into a third month and prompted Iran and the United States to implement rival blockades around the Strait of Hormuz, has choked off a major oil transit route, wreaking havoc on global supply chains and causing energy prices to spike.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said late Wednesday that his government was reviewing an American response to a 14-point Iranian proposal to end the war and would give its response to Pakistan, a key mediator. Neither Tehran nor Washington has said what the U.S. response entails.
“The exchange of messages through the Pakistani intermediary is ongoing, and reviews of the exchanged texts are continuing,” Mr. Baghaei told IRIB, Iran’s state broadcaster.
Earlier in the day, another Iranian official had dismissed a reported proposal to end the war as a “list of American wishes.”
At a news briefing on Thursday, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said that Islamabad was optimistic about a deal, while declining to elaborate on what it would include. “We expect an agreement sooner rather than later,” the spokesman, Tahir Andrabi, told reporters.
President Trump, after threatening more attacks, said on Wednesday that there had been “very good talks” with Iran, adding: “We’re in good shape, and now we’re doing well, and we have to get what we have to get.” Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump had issued a new ultimatum to Iran, threatening to restart attacks “at a much higher level and intensity” if Iran reneged on apparent concessions. He did not elaborate on what those were.
The mixed signals came a day after Mr. Trump abruptly paused a new U.S. military effort to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz, citing “great progress” in talks with Tehran. The uncertainty did little to ease concerns about the strait, the key oil and gas shipping route that Iranian forces effectively closed in retaliation after the United States and Israel began the war in late February.
In the absence of any peace deal, the two sides held down a shaky cease-fire despite a standoff over the strait, with both claiming control of the waterway.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Ship attack: Iranian diplomats on Thursday denied that Iranian armed forces had played a role in an explosion that caused a fire on a South Korean cargo ship on Monday. In a statement, Iran’s embassy to South Korea reiterated warnings against any vessel navigating the Strait of Hormuz without Iranian permission, and suggested that responsibility for “unintended incidents” lay with “parties that proceed with transit” without its approval.
Iranian tanker: A U.S. Navy plane disabled an Iranian-flagged oil tanker that was trying to cross the American blockade on Iranian ports on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said. The American F/A-18 Super Hornet fired on the ship’s rudder, and the vessel is “no longer transiting to Iran.”
Erica L. GreenReporting from Washington
WHITE HOUSE MEMO
Trump’s gyrations on the war leave even Rubio out of sync.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, wearing a dark suit and red tie, points from a lectern, with blurred raised hands in the foreground.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio holding a briefing at the White House on Tuesday.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to the lectern of the White House press briefing room on Tuesday, he seemed to revel in serving as the administration’s chief spokesman of the day.
He smiled, joked and jabbed gently at reporters, calling on them by the color of their blazers. He took on a range of questions on topics from rising gas prices to Cuba to his upcoming visit with the pope. He invoked the lyrics of ’90s hip-hop songs to describe U.S. adversaries.
And when it came to the war in Iran, or Operation Epic Fury as President Trump branded it in February when the United States joined Israel in striking the country, Mr. Rubio confidently described the state of play in a conflict whose status has been increasingly muddy.
“The operation is over,” Mr. Rubio declared. “Epic Fury is — as the president notified Congress — we’re done with that stage of it. We’re now on to this Project Freedom.”
The current American effort in the Strait of Hormuz, he explained, was focused on providing humanitarian support for civilian crews stranded on ships. He spoke emphatically about the desire for peace with Iran and liberation for its people, indicating that the conflict was moving into a new phase.
But as most things go in Mr. Trump’s orbit, what appeared definitive was fleeting.
Just three hours later, the president announced that Project Freedom, the day-old mission he announced on Sunday to help guide ships out of the strait, would be paused “for a short period of time.”
Then on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump suggested in a social media post that the war was not, in fact, over. Only if “Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to,” he wrote, the “legendary Epic Fury will be at an end.”
“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” Mr. Trump added.
It was the administration’s latest U-turn in what has been a stream of chaotic and confusing messages about the U.S. posture and its objectives in the war.
The president’s constant turns have roiled the markets, tested the patience of Republican lawmakers and bewildered U.S. allies trying to navigate the fallout of the conflict.
His latest rhetorical shift hit closer to home, underscoring how treacherous it is to speak for a president who cultivates a bombastic and erratic style, one that Mr. Trump insists keeps his adversaries off balance.
In this case, however, he appeared to be throwing off balance his own secretary of state, who also serves as the president’s national security adviser.
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said that Mr. Trump’s vacillations reflected the reality of the fast-moving situation on the ground, and his desire to keep all options open to ensure that Iran’s “nuclear dreams are eliminated for good.”
“Right now, negotiations continue, which move quickly by nature,” Ms. Kelly said. “This president is the most transparent and accessible in history, and no other administration has done more to keep the press and the public apprised of these developments in real time.”
Throughout the war, Mr. Trump’s positions have changed by the sentence. He has described the conflict as, alternately, a “war,” an “excursion” and, most recently again on Wednesday, a “skirmish.” He has gone from saying that the United States had already “won” the war, to threatening to wipe out Iran’s civilization if its government did not meet more demands. He has said that Iran has no leaders left, but that he is in communication with some who are “desperate” for a deal. He threatened that bombings would continue, only to extend a cease-fire at the last minute.
Mr. Rubio sought on Tuesday to reinforce the idea that the president would not back down, sometimes with humor.
While Mr. Trump has threatened that the United States will continue “bombing our little hearts out” if Iran does not agree to a deal, Mr. Rubio encouraged its leaders to “check themselves before they wreck themselves in the direction that they’re going,” referring to Ice Cube’s 1992 song “Check Yo Self.”
Still, he asserted that the United States “was not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace.”
Tommy Pigott, a spokesman for the State Department, said in a statement that Mr. Rubio’s news conference reflected the transparency of the administration.
“Part of keeping the American people informed means there are updates as the situation changes in real-time,” Mr. Pigott said. “President Trump’s objectives have been clear from the beginning, and the world is safer because of the decisive outcomes of Operation Epic Fury.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump was back to sounding optimistic, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the United States had “very good talks” with Iran in the previous 24 hours. He suggested that the tension earlier in the week, when Iran fired at ships in the strait, had subsided.
“A few days ago,” he noted, “is a long time ago in the world of war.”
Helene Cooper and Eric SchmittReporting from Washington
U.S. troops in the Middle East wait for action.
Two aircraft carriers with three destroyers each
Three destroyers, two combat ships
Two destroyers
Three ships with 2,500 marines
Two destroyers
There are about 50,000 U.S. troops assigned across the Middle East
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ARABIAAFGHANISTANU.A.E.TURKMENISTANQAT.BAHRAINOMANYEMENEGYPTJORDANDJIBOUTIERITREATURKEY TehranArabian Sea
President Trump tasked some 50,000 troops to his war against Iran, sending them in aircraft carriers, destroyers, Marine expeditionary units and warplanes.
With parachutes in their packs and survival kits at their sides, they have been part of Mr. Trump’s declared mission against Iran “to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground.”
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