Kamal Ghorui
US President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed that his social media post about “wiping out Iranian civilisation” brought Iran to the negotiating table.When asked about criticism over his social media post, Trump said that he is “fine with it.”“Let me tell you, that statement got them to the bargaining table, and they haven’t left. They haven’t left the bargaining table. I predict they come back and they give us everything we want. And I tell my people I want everything. I don’t want 90%. I don’t want 95%. I told them I want everything,” Trump said during a telephonic interview with Fox News.“They say, death to America. Death to Israel. America to Satan. We will destroy America. Death to America. Now, does anybody ever complain to you when they say that? I think that’s worse,” he added.Just days before the US and Iran agreed upon a temporary ceasefire, Trump, in a Truth Social post, had threatened to erase Iranian civilisation if it did not re-open the Strait of Hormuz.“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”Earlier, he also posted a profanity-filled threat, warning Iran that the US would destroy every bridge and every power plant in the country if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, calling its leader “crazy b*****ds.”Later, Trump suspended his planned bombing of Iran as the US and Tehran agreed on a temporary ceasefire for two weeks, on the condition of reopening the Strait of Hormuz.Meanwhile, negotiations between the US and Iran collapsed without agreement in Pakistan’s Islamabad.According to US Vice President JD Vance, the core dispute remained Iran’s nuclear programme. Describing it as a “red line” for the Trump administration, the Vice President said Iran was told to end its program and halt uranium enrichment. Meanwhile, Iran said that the demands made by the US are “unreasonable” and blamed the US for the collapse of talks.Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but has insisted on its right to a civilian nuclear programme. Experts say its stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.Since the US and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28, it has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,020 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel, and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and caused lasting damage to infrastructure in half a dozen Middle Eastern countries. Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz has largely cut off the Persian Gulf and its oil and gas exports from the global economy, sending energy prices soaring.
