Trump on Iran: "We don't need ground troops on the ground right now"
American President Donald Trump stated this Wednesday (3) that the United States does not "need" troops on Iranian soil due to the success of months-long bombing campaigns in the country.
"We don't need troops on the ground right now," said the president in an interview with the New York Post podcast, published this Wednesday. "Well, we did it, you know, we decimated a lot of their armed forces just with bombings. We didn't put anyone on Iranian soil."
"You don't want to do that if you can avoid it," Trump added.
Iranian media outlets have signaled that negotiations between Tehran and Washington are ongoing, but the country's chief negotiator has threatened an escalation of the conflict if Israel's attacks on Lebanon continue.
On Tuesday (2), the semi-official Mehr news agency reported that Iran's final proposal for an interim ceasefire agreement with the US is still under discussion, indicating that negotiations had resumed after the state news agency Tasnim reported on Monday (1) that they had been suspended due to Israel's continued attacks on Beirut.
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Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly said he is close to signing a peace agreement, but has not yet done so. Despite the ceasefire, Iran and the US have exchanged attacks several times in the last week.
Meanwhile, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Esmaeil Qaani, threatened to expand the blockade from the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, another chokepoint at the entrance to the Red Sea.
Tehran has already blocked maritime traffic in the Persian Gulf, a region that before the war supplied a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, drastically raising prices.
What is happening in the Middle East?
The United States and Israel are at war with Iran. The conflict began on February 28, when a coordinated attack between the two countries killed the country's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in Tehran.
Several high-ranking officials of the Iranian regime were also killed. Furthermore, the US claims to have destroyed dozens of the country's ships, as well as air defense systems, planes and other military targets.
In retaliation, the ayatollah regime carried out attacks against several countries in the region, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and Oman. Iranian officials say they are targeting only U.S. and Israeli interests in those nations.
More than 1,900 civilians have died in Iran since the start of the war, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. The White House, in turn, recorded at least 13 deaths of American soldiers in direct relation to the Iranian attacks.
The conflict also expanded to Lebanon. Hezbollah, an armed group supported by Iran, attacked Israeli territory in retaliation for the death of Ali Khamenei. As a result, Israel has carried out aerial offensives against what it says are Hezbollah targets in the neighboring country. More than three thousand have died in Lebanese territory since then.
With the death of much of its leadership, an Iranian council elected a new supreme leader: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ali Khamenei. Experts point out that he will not make structural changes and represents continuity of repression.
Donald Trump showed dissatisfaction with this choice, classifying it as a "big mistake". He had said he would need to be involved in the process and said Mojtaba would be "unacceptable" to Iran's leadership.
Source: CNN