Trump Accuses Iran of 'Playing' the US, Threatens Tougher Strikes
United States (US) President Donald Trump has stated that the US will launch new, tougher strikes against Iran. Trump accused negotiators in Tehran of having ‘played us’, as peace talks to end the conflict stall.
Trump’s statement came after the US and Iran once again exchanged strikes following the downing of a US military helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz, further threatening a fragile ceasefire that has been in place since early April.
US forces launched a wave of strikes against several targets in southern Iran in response to the loss of their helicopter. Tehran retaliated with a barrage of attacks against US military bases in the Gulf region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.
‘We’re going to hit them very hard,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday (10/6) US time. ‘We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re hitting them hard again today, if you missed it, if you didn’t have your television on.’
‘And we’ll see what happens with the deal. We were almost ready to make a deal, but they just kept stringing us along, they kept playing us,’ said the US President.
Trump further stated that Washington remained open to reaching an agreement with Tehran. However, he stressed that any deal must be substantive and enforceable. ‘We want a deal that’s meaningful. We want a deal that works,’ he said.
In his remarks, Trump also boasted that he could order the targeting of Iranian bridges and power plants — a step he initially threatened to take just before the ceasefire but never carried out. ‘I’m not going to say that to you. But I could do that,’ Trump said when asked by an AFP journalist about a Fox News report suggesting the US President was considering such a plan.
Trump appeared to be losing patience with peace talks with Iran, after weeks of repeatedly stating that the two sides were close to an agreement. In an earlier social media post, Trump warned that Iran must ‘pay the price’ for what he described as delays in a deal over the Middle East conflict.
‘The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! They negotiated far too long for a deal that would have been very beneficial for them, now they must pay the price!!!’ Trump wrote in a statement via Truth Social.
These latest comments mark a stark contrast to his previous statement on Tuesday (9/6), when he described negotiations for a lasting settlement to end the war as being in the ‘final stages’ and potentially concluded within ‘two or three days’.