Trump Compares Negotiations with Iran to a 'Chess Game'
US President Donald Trump stated that his administration is prepared to intensify economic pressure on Iran at present, rather than resorting to a new large-scale military operation, likening the negotiations to a “chess game.” Meanwhile, Tehran announced it would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz unless the United States accepted all its demands, asserting that “the strait has now effectively become a war zone for us.”
Trump, in a phone interview with Axios, said his administration was “handling the matter calmly,” adding, “We are only negotiating with them to a limited extent. We are merely monitoring Iran, given the massive inflation it is suffering from and the fact that it has no money.”
He emphasized that Iran is “in a very poor economic position,” noting that it lacks the funds to pay its forces’ salaries, while clarifying that the US naval blockade has exacerbated the economic crisis.
Trump considered that the negotiations “will end well,” adding, “They always end well. It’s like a chess game.”
The US president also pointed out that the drop in oil prices to just over $75 per barrel alleviates, in turn, the impact of the war on American consumers.
A White House official had previously stated that the United States had achieved all its military objectives, noting that Trump’s focus had now shifted to ensuring the smooth flow of global energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran had set six conditions for Washington to meet before reopening the Hormuz Strait, including an end to “its war and aggression against Iran and Iran’s allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq, forever.”
Furthermore, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf stipulated in a Saturday letter that Washington must “lift the naval blockade and withdraw its military, naval, and air forces from the vicinity of Iran,” and “lift sanctions on the Iranian people.”
He demanded that Washington “release, without any conditions, the frozen funds of the Iranian people” and “fully pay, without deduction, compensation for damages resulting from the wars against Iran.”
He stressed that the Supreme Council “will not make any concessions, whether in war or in negotiations.”
For his part, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that “opening the Strait of Hormuz has its own mechanism and has no relation to negotiations between Iran and the Sultanate of Oman.”
Spokesman Hossein Makki said, “Our current strategy is to control this strait until the enemy accepts all our conditions,” adding that “the strait has now effectively become a war zone for us, not just a waterway,” as reported by state television.
Tehran also clarified that reaching an agreement with the Sultanate of Oman on new navigation routes in the Strait of Hormuz had reached its “final stages,” but it would not reopen the strait unless the United States accepted its conditions, including paying compensation for war damages.
He continued, stating that Iran and the United States are not holding talks, and that Tehran will not initiate them as long as Washington violates a temporary agreement signed last June, adding that messages are being exchanged through intermediaries.
