Even as US President Donald Trump announced to pause strikes on Iran energy infrastructure till April 6 and extended the Hormuz deadline, he implied during a White House press briefing that the US doesn’t need the strategic energy passage. Track live updates on Iran US war
Trump was crticising the European allies for not extending ample support to the US in its war against Iran when he made the remark. “We are there to protect Europe from Russia. In theory it doesn’t affect us, we have a big, fat, beautiful ocean. But we are there to protect NATO, but they are not there to protect us,” Trump said on Thursday. Track updates on Middle East conflict
What Trump said
The virtual closure of Strait of Hormuz – key waterway through which a fifth of world’s oil and gas requirements travel – by Iran has caused a global disruption of energy supplies with many countries reporting a shortage and crisis of fuel and cooking gas.
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Trump’s remark comes amid raging war in the Middle East with Trump pushing claims on talks with Iran and Iran, in turn, denying the claims.
Trump’s 10-day pause on Iran energy sector attacks
Trump, while speaking to Fox News, claimed Iran had approached the US administration requesting more time as part of the ongoing diplomatic engagement between the two sides amid the raging war in the Middle East that has been going on for a month now and has disrupted the global energy supplies.
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“They said to me very nicely, through my people, ‘Could we have more time?’ Because we’re talking about tomorrow night, which is pretty quick, and if they don’t do what they have to do, I will knock out their power plants,” Trump said.
‘Iran begging to make a deal’
A day after Tehran rejected Trump’s 15-point ceasefire plan, the president said Iran was “begging to make a deal” and urged its leaders to “get serious soon” about negotiations. Trump threatened to increase pressure on Iran if it did not make a deal, news agency Reuters reported.
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account.
Iran has denied Trump’s claims of it engaging in talks with Washington and Trump has not identified who are the negotiators representing Iran.
Early this week, Trump announced a pause all threatened strikes against power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period. the pause has now been extended to 10 days amid reports of US preparing for a possible ground invasion and preparing to send around 10,000 ground troops to the Middle East.
Meanwhile, mediators have told the Wall Street Journal that Iran did not request for a 10-day pause on strikes as is being claimed by Trump.
