‘End of war depends on Iran’
WASHINGTON, May 6: US President Donald Trump threatened Iran with more bombing Wednesday if it doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz after a report that an agreement is emerging to end the war.
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Trump posted on social media that the war with Iran could soon end and oil and natural gas shipments could restart. But that all depends on Iran accepting a reported agreement that the US president did not detail.
“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s threats came after China’s foreign minister called for a comprehensive ceasefire in the Iran war following a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who was visiting Beijing for the first time since the war with the US and Israel started February 28.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday his country was “deeply distressed” by the conflict.
China’s close economic and political ties to Tehran give it a unique position of influence. The Trump administration is pressing China to use that relationship to urge the Islamic Republic to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump said on Tuesday that he was pausing his short-lived US effort to guide stranded commercial vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz in hopes that a deal could be finalized. A shaky ceasefire has been largely holding, despite exchanges of fire during the US push to reopen the strait on Monday.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait, a vital waterway through which major oil and gas supplies, fertilizer and other petroleum products passed before the war, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing, rattled the global economy and put enormous economic pressure on countries, including major powers like China.
The spot price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell to around $100 per barrel Wednesday, easing significantly from big price jumps earlier in the week. The prices are still well above the roughly USD 70 a barrel that crude was selling for before the war began.
Araghchi’s visit to China comes ahead of a planned visit by Trump to Beijing for a high-profile summit May 14-15 with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The trip would be Trump’s first to China during his second term and the first by a US president since Trump visited in 2017.
“We believe that a comprehensive ceasefire is urgently needed, that a resumption of hostilities is not acceptable, and that it is particularly important to remain committed to dialogue and negotiations,” Wang said, according to a video of the meeting.
The Chinese foreign minister said the conflict “has already lasted for more than two months. It has not only caused serious losses to the Iranian people, but also had a severe impact on regional and global peace. China is deeply distressed by this.”
In a televised interview with Iran’s state media from Beijing, Araghchi said his visit included discussions of the Strait of Hormuz as well as Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions imposed on Tehran.
Iran has attained “an elevated international standing” after the war, having proven its capabilities and strength, Araghchi said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope that Beijing would reiterate the need for Iran to release its chokehold on the strait, which would deny its main leverage as Trump demands a major rollback of Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
“I hope the Chinese tell him what he needs to be told,” Rubio said during a White House briefing Tuesday. “And that is that what you are doing in the strait is causing you to be globally isolated. You’re the bad guy in this.”(PTI)
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