US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened Iran signialling that war is not over until the final peace deal is inked. Trump said US military ships and aircraft will remain around Iran and threatened that the U.S. will start “shooting” again unless Tehran fully complies with the deal reached with Washington.
“All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry … will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.,” the president added.
Iran had said earlier on Wednesday that it would be “unreasonable” to proceed with talks to forge a permanent peace deal with the United States after Israel pounded Lebanon with its heaviest strikes yet on Wednesday, killing hundreds of people.
The two sides appeared to be far apart on Iran’s nuclear program, with Trump saying Iran had agreed to stop enriching uranium, and Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammed Bager Qalibaf saying it was allowed to continue enriching uranium under the terms of the ceasefire.
“It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE,” Trump added in his late Wednesday’s Truth Social post.
In other news, US Vice President JD Vance firmly discarded the claims of Lebanon being a part of the truce talks between Washington and Tehran, as the precarious two-week ceasefire comes into place.
Speaking to reporters ahead of his departure from Hungary, on whether Lebanon was included in the peace proposal, Vance said that the United States never made any such promises. He underlined that the ceasefire was aimed at a focus on Iran, and American allies–both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.
“We never made that promise. We never indicated that was going to be the case. What we said is that the ceasefire would be focused on Iran and the ceasefire would be focused on America’s allies, both Israel and the Gulf Arab states.”
The remarks by Vance has put Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif in a tight spot after he had claimed that Lebanon was also a part of the peace deal–a claim firmly dismissed by both US President Donald Trump and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
The embarrassment to the self-styled mediator’s claims comes as a part of the carousel of chaos Islamabad has seen in the last few hours.
Pakistan had attempted to present itself as a peacemaker between the US and Iran, but the new details from a Financial Times report suggest that it was rather pushed by White House to broker the temporary ceasefire with Iran.
The report posed serious questions about Pakistan’s independent diplomatic stance as it suggests that Islamabad was not a neutral broker but rather a convenient channel for the US to push the temporary ceasefire deal.
Financial Times, citing the people familiar with the talks, reported that the US leaned on Pakistan to present Washington’s proposal to Iran, making the country a mere messenger between the two sides rather than having an active neutral participation.
(With inputs from ANI and Reuters)
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
