President Donald Trump, who has been criticized even by allies for his war in the Middle East, said U.S. warships are being re-loaded with “the best ammunition” to resume strikes on Iran if peace talks in Pakistan fail. Trump spoke shortly after Vice President J.D. Vance boarded Air Force Two bound for Islamabad. There, he will be joined by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to negotiate a final peace after a two-week ceasefire was reached, the New York Post reported.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
“We'll know in about 24 hours. We'll know in the near future,” Trump said when asked if he thought the talks would be successful.
Trump said he was prepared to use military force to reopen the strait if Iran did not comply with the ceasefire agreement.
“We're having a reboot. We're loading the ships with the best ammunition, the best weapons ever created — even better than before, to completely destroy them,” he said. “And if we don't have a deal, we're going to use it, and we're going to use it very effectively.”
ADVERTISING
Iran is expected to be represented in the Pakistani capital by Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who insisted in pre-war negotiations that Iran has every right to enrich uranium, and Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
“You're dealing with people who we don't know if they're telling the truth,” Trump told the NY Post. “They tell us they're getting rid of all their nuclear weapons, everything's gone. And then they go out to the press and say, 'No, we'd like to enrich.' So we'll find out.”
Trump has made it clear that Iran's reopening of the strait to shipping is a critical component of any deal, as very few ships have passed through it since the US stopped bombing Iran. Other key points will be Iran's end of support for regional allies and the status of its ballistic missile program.
ADVERTISING
We should add that Iran, in turn, announced the “devastating defeat” of the US in the war and put forward its demands for an end to the war, including the lifting of sanctions.