Trump assures that the war “is almost over” but that it will not stop until Iran is “totally defeated”

He also threatened Iranian leaders with destroy their energy infrastructure to the point that they will not be able to rebuild them for decades if they maintain the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. “We hope we don’t have to do it,” the president said, “but they can’t continue extorting the rest of the world.” This statement goes in the opposite direction to what was published on Monday by Axioswhich reflected the discontent in the US Administration over the Israeli attacks on civilian refineries, as this could cause even Iranians in the opposition to end up supporting the regime against the attacks.

Regarding the choice of Mojtaba Khamenei As the country’s new supreme leader, Trump showed his disappointment with the decision and insisted that the best way out would be a transition similar to that of Venezuela. “They tell me about the Shah’s son, but he hasn’t lived there for a long time,” he said. “The ideal would be to find someone like Delcy, who is working wonderfully for us.” In other words, an ayatollah who is also not so ayatollah and who guarantees that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

Thanks to Putin and no to Zelensky

Hours before, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubiohad stated that the goals of the war were to completely destroy Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, production factories and navy. He no longer spoke of regime change or “unconditional surrender,” a term that Trump himself has redefined several times. The Secretary of Defense, Pete HegsethOn the contrary, he assured that “we were only at the beginning” of the operation. Asked about this, Trump did not observe any contradiction between both positions.

It is possible that the economic repercussions of a possible indefinite prolongation of the war are raising doubts about what objectives would be sufficient to end it honorably. It’s also possible that no one in the White House knows exactly what to do or why they’re getting into this. The fact that Rubio came to blame Israel last week for the situation is quite illuminating in this regard.

Be that as it may, the fact is that, in ten days, we have heard too many versions and, although the military advantage is there and is evident, it is also true that the expense is tremendous compared to what Iran uses with its Shahed drones. Hence, the Pentagon has had to order interceptors from Ukraine, cheaper and just as effective as the millionaire Patriots. Trump did not want to make any reference to this circumstance or to Zelensky’s offer.

He did have words of gratitude for the Russian president, Vladimir Putindespite the fact that both the Kremlin and Tehran have recognized that they are both collaborating to defeat the Americans. Although there are now nine soldiers killed by Iranian attacks, the current Administration continues to prefer to maintain a low profile with respect to the Kremlin, as is usual. Apparently, during the telephone conversation, Putin seemed eager to help and gave a very constructive approach.

Escort the tankers in Hormuz

Beyond the threats to the Iranian energy network, Trump made it clear that his navy was willing to clear the entire Strait of Hormuz of mines and escort the tankers so that they can continue their journey, mainly towards Asia, and thus limit the increases in the price of crude oil. It thus joins Emmanuel Macronwho this same Monday had also announced the sending of two French aircraft carriers to the area to safeguard their interests in the area.

It remains to be seen what position the rest of the countries of the European Union take, and especially, what position Spain adopts. Will you continue to support “No to war” or will you consider sending frigates to Hormuz can be considered a defensive action and therefore does not count? The same can be applied to Italy and Germany, which are faced with the dilemma of supporting France and demonstrating that Europe can pull itself out of the fire or resign itself to the United States once again imposing its law.

Doing an electoral campaign in Castilla y León against Donald Trump already has its dystopian point, but doing it against Macron would go one step further into surrealism. If Iran persists in attacking neighboring countries and blocking oil tankers from so many allied countries, it will be difficult to justify that our country does not want to know anything about the issue as a matter of moral cleanliness.

Selective troop dispatch

Trump did not want to go into whether or not the United States is going to send troops to overthrow the ayatollahs. As much as regime change may not seem like an indispensable condition now, the truth is that, in practice, with hostile leadership in Tehran, the United States would have to repeat these actions every few months, as Iran will once again build missiles and enrich uranium again as soon as it can. And this time it will be difficult to convince them not to do it for military purposes.

Of course, it doesn’t help that, despite evidence from Western intelligence that it was an American Tomahawk missile that caused the death of dozens of girls at a school in Tehran, the United States continues without apologizing and accuses, without any evidence, the Iranians of having bombed themselves.

At the press conference, Trump repeated that “they are investigating it” and that “many countries have Tomahawks.” Whatever the objective, and we have already said that it varies as it did for Russia when it began its “special military operation,” the United States needs the regime to be threatened from within. Attacking schools, even by mistake, does not generate great confidence.

The other option, obviously, is to threaten him from outside, that is, to send troops. Also in this regard, everything has been said these days. The latest that has been published in the American press is that Trump would be willing to send soldiers to the facilities of the Iranian nuclear program to ensure their absolute destruction. It may sound good as a compromise, but again, you have to explain how. So far, the president has not even tried it before Congress, much less before the population or the media.

The point of no return

At this point, and with the Iranian regime’s declared intention to “resist” and “abandon all diplomatic channels,” it remains to be seen what options are left for the United States. Israel has no problems continuing to launch missiles because it does not have its own bases to defend in the Arab countries and its access to oil does not pass through the Strait of Hormuz. For Europe and Asia, however, what is happening is an economic disaster that, surprisingly, no one had foreseen.

If this disaster is consolidated over time and the price of a barrel continues to grow – the Revolutionary Guard denied President Pezeshkian’s statement over the weekend that there would be no more attacks on Arab countries -, inflation will skyrocketto the terror of all leaders who have elections this year. Among them, as is known, Donald Trump and the Republican Party, who face the legislative elections in November, where the prospects are already bleak.

Deep down, the Witkoffs, Kushner and company may still think that this is a matter of continuing to push until the other party gives in and a good deal is reached, but the situation seems more like an “all or nothing” one: either there is a regime change that guarantees that there will be no new nuclear program or any intermediate solution risks falling so short that the next war will be even more savage… and more dangerous for the rest of the planet.