US President Donald Trump has denied having underestimated Iran’s resilience.
When asked whether he had misunderstood Iran’s tolerance for pain, Trump told Fox News: “I didn’t underestimate anything.”
Despite diplomatic efforts, there is still no solution in sight to the war with Iran that the USA and Israel began at the end of February. The U.S. government said at the start of the war that the operation would last between four and six weeks.
Trump now emphasized that the USA had hit Iran “incredibly hard”. The bridges would have been left standing and the power supply left intact. “We can shut this all down in two days,” Trump said. During the course of the war, the US President threatened Iran several times with attacks on its energy sector and infrastructure.
A ceasefire, which Trump recently extended unilaterally, has been in effect in the war since the beginning of April. However, tensions in the region had shaken things up several times. In addition, the lack of progress in diplomatic efforts to end the war caused increasing frustration in Washington. The ceasefire is only hanging by a thread, Trump said before his trip to China. Even after this, it was initially unclear whether Trump’s visit to China – an important ally of Iran – brought an end to the war in any way closer./fsp/DP/zb
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX)