President Trump left the door open for future negotiations with Iran as the conflict continues.
Trump said Wednesday the U.S. could return to talks “maybe at some point, but right now, I think the situation is so good.”
In a social media post Tuesday, Trump said there were no conversations going on with Iran while the U.S. continued its naval blockade. The message came after his negotiator and son in law Jared Kushner told Fox News Monday that conversations continued, but “they're not showing any interest in doing something that makes sense for us.”
While there were “positive discussions” according to a source familiar, “President Trump has decided to wait and asked his team to not engage until Iran is ready to make a deal.”
The U.S. has continued to exert economic pressure against Iran in the meantime and Trump suggested it could intensify.
"Well, we have things that we could sanction. We have very draconian sanctions, and we'll see what happens. Right now, the strait is open. A lot of boats are coming through. People aren't reporting that, and that may slow down a little bit at some point. But right now, a lot of boats are coming though. The naval blockade has been extremely effective,” Trump said.
“The other thing that's happened is people have found other alternatives, which they never thought about. Texas, Alaska, Louisiana, and other places. In addition, a lot a pipelines, record numbers of pipelines are being built. So I think the Hormuz Strait's not going to be quite as important as it was in the past,” Trump said.
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The administration believes Iran is in a bad place internally and that is putting pressure on them, according to a senior administration official, who called it a multi-layered offensive: While the U.S. continues to exert economic pressure, the president retains military options.
The economic efforts appeared to expand, though. The UAE announced it will stop trade and financial transactions with Iran, after accusing Iran of launching ballistic missiles at the Gulf nation this week.
“The Iranians are going to try to escalate and I think the U.S. is going to have to couple the economic pressure campaign with robust military reprisal,” said Jason Brodsky, the policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran.
Brodsky said the economic measures have been effective.
“The economic blockade weakens the ability of the regime to govern and that is what I think the direction the United States is headed in,” Brodsky said, but warned “we have to be prepared to have patience here.”
