Trump Urges Iran to Wave White Flag as Negotiations Stall
United States (US) President Donald Trump has urged Iran to surrender in order to end the war. The demand was met with mockery by Iran.
According to Reuters on Tuesday (18/8), Trump made the call as peace negotiations between the two countries stalled. Trump said Iran should wave the white flag.
“They should wave the white flag of surrender,” Trump said in his latest telephone interview with Fox News.
The interim agreement signed by Washington and Tehran in June on an ‘immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts’ has collapsed. Trump announced the deal was ‘over’ on 7 July.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry subsequently said the agreement was ‘suspended’ a week later. The two countries then resumed attacking each other.
Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU), the US and Iran committed to negotiating a final agreement covering broader issues such as the fate of Iran’s nuclear programme within a maximum of 60 days. Monday (17/8) marked the end of the 60-day deadline since the MoU was signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Separately, Iran and Oman held talks in an effort to reach an agreement to restore commercial shipping activity in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane through which 20 percent of global oil and gas supplies passed before the war erupted in late February.
Trump also threatened to strike Oman if the country obstructed a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Oman gets in the way, we will bomb them to smithereens,” Trump said in the Fox News interview.
The dispute over control of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a rise in global fuel prices. Trump is also under pressure to end a war that is fiercely opposed within the US.
In a statement via Truth Social on Monday (17/8), Trump stressed that Iran cannot obtain nuclear weapons under any circumstances.
“The primary objective is — and will always be — that Iran must not possess nuclear weapons in any form or manner,” the US President asserted, repeating one of the reasons he has previously given to justify US military operations against Iran.
Iran Refuses to Surrender
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi responded to Trump’s demand. He asserted that Tehran has ‘won both the war and diplomacy’.
Araghchi, as reported by Anadolu Agency and TRT World, said Tehran fought in its own way and forced the parties that initially demanded ‘unconditional surrender’ — referring to Trump’s call on Iran at the start of the war — to shift to the negotiating table.
According to a report by Tasnim news agency, Araghchi, speaking at an event, said Iran had held out for days against what he described as ‘the world’s greatest military power’. He noted that nearly all Western countries and several other nations inside and outside the Middle East region supported the US during the war.
“Those who demanded unconditional surrender, not long after the war began, are now begging to negotiate,” Araghchi said in his statement.
He claimed Iran initially rejected a ceasefire and continued fighting until reaching a point where the opposing side finally accepted a ceasefire and negotiations ‘on Iran’s terms’.
“We fought with strength, and we negotiated with strength,” the Iranian Foreign Minister said.
Araghchi said many foreign ministers from various countries told him: “You have won both the war and diplomacy.”