U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran would “have to pay the price” for stalling ceasefire talks with the United States.
“They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them,” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s post came shortly after a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said that Tehran’s participation in the truce talks talks “must be reviewed” following renewed U.S. strikes against the Islamic Republic.
The U.S. military on Tuesday carried out a wave of retaliatory strikes against Iran in response to the downing of one of its helicopters over the Persian Gulf.
In an interview with Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst on Wednesday, Trump said he was getting close to ordering further strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges as he accused Tehran of stringing him along in the peace talks.
“I may keep going,” Trump said in the phone interview, according to Yingst.
Trump in his Truth Social post said that Iran’s military was a “complete and total mess” following the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Tehran.
“Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore - they have been completely defeated,” he wrote, adding: “Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle East is dead!!!”
In a subsequent post, Trump said Iran was doing “zero business, not paying their military, or any of their bills, and quickly becoming a failed nation!”
“Lots of oil is getting out,” he stated. “Praise be to Allah!”
According to Trump, “fake news media refuses to report how effective the U.S. naval blockade is, the most successful blockade in the history of naval warfare.”
“Nothing gets through unless we want it to. It is a steel wall!,” he added.
The latest flare-up in hostilities came after Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Washington and Tehran were “in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal,” saying the agreement being negotiated with the Islamic regime “will not allow in any way, shape or form nuclear weapons, etc., and that the Strait [of Hormuz] will open up right away.”
The deal could be signed within two or three days, Trump declared, speaking with reporters after attending the NBA Finals in New York late Monday night.
“We should be doing it in one hour—I don’t think there are any sticking points,” he stated. “We will have a signed document that is stronger than doing the bombing.”
“If we go and bomb, which we could do very easily if we want, and we spend another few weeks bombing, they will have nothing left whatsoever,” the American leader said, warning that “a lot of people will be killed.”
