Trump to pursue Iran talks despite violations

U.S. negotiators will be going to talk with Iran despite the IRGC Navy’s hostile acts that violated the ceasefire, President Donald Trump said on Sunday. He threatened to target civilian infrastructure if talks fail.

“I hope they take it,” Trump wrote on Sunday on TruthSocial, referencing the U.S. offer for a deal, which he said was “very fair and reasonable.” If the Iranian regime does not take the deal, “the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” the president wrote.

He added, “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years. IT’S TIME FOR THE IRAN KILLING MACHINE TO END!”

Iran’s government said on Saturday that it had reimposed “strict control” over the Strait of Hormuz as gunboats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired on three commercial vessels, according to maritime security reports. This ended a brief period of calm in the maritime route following the declaration on April 8 of a two-weak ceasefire in the hostilities between Iran and the governments of the U.S. and Israel.

Traffic through the strait, a bottleneck along a major shipping route, is a key element of the ceasefire and any future deal.

“Iran decided to fire bullets yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz—A Total Violation of our Ceasefire Agreement! Many of them were aimed at a French Ship, and a Freighter from the United Kingdom. That wasn’t nice, was it?” Trump wrote in the beginning of his post. The U.S. would negotiate with Iran despite this, he indicated.

“My Representatives are going to Islamabad, Pakistan—They will be there tomorrow evening, for Negotiations,” he wrote. He then suggested the Iranian decision to close the strait was inconsequential since the U.S. is imposing its own blockade, meant to prevent the Islamic Republic from receiving vital goods and products.

“Iran recently announced that they were closing the Strait, which is strange, because our BLOCKADE has already closed it. They’re helping us without knowing, and they are the ones that lose with the closed passage, $500 Million Dollars a day! The United States loses nothing,” the president continued.

Many ships, Trump added, “are headed, right now, to the U.S., Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska, to load up, compliments of the IRGC, always wanting to be ‘the tough guy!’”