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Accept our deal or face more bombing, Trump warns Iran
For the umpteenth time, Donald Trump, President of the United States, has reemphasised his stance that Iran must play ball to avoid further bombing of its cities or face greater onslaught capable of wreaking a more devastating effect in the country.
The POTUS, specifically maintained that Tehran must stick to the agreements to completely reopen the Strait of Hormoz, among other details, stating that Washington was capable of driving its position to deliver a devastating blow as a consequence.
The threat came as Tehran, on Thursday, denied attacking a South Korean cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz this week, even as Trump said a deal to end the war was “very possible.”
Tehran’s embassy in Seoul said it “firmly rejects and categorically denies” allegations that its armed forces were behind a blast aboard the Panama-flagged HMM Namu, which caught fire on Monday while transiting the strategic waterway with 24 crew members on board.
Trump later claimed Iran had “taken some shots” at the vessel and urged South Korea to join US-led efforts to restore shipping through the strait.
The war, launched by the United States and Israel in late February, saw Iran respond with attacks across the Middle East and impose a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, rattling global energy markets.
Despite Trump’s optimism, Iran has yet to respond to a new US proposal, with its chief negotiator warning that Washington was seeking to force the Islamic republic’s “surrender.”
Signs that the foes could return to the table after weeks of deadlock grew after Trump halted a short-lived military operation to reopen the strait, citing hopes for a deal.
“We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters Wednesday.
But he had warned earlier that if Iran did not honour what had been agreed, bombing would resume “at a much higher level and intensity.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the US proposal remained “under review” and Tehran would communicate its position to mediator Pakistan “after finalising its views.”
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has led Iran’s negotiations, warned that Washington sought “through a naval blockade, economic pressure and media manipulation, to destroy the country’s cohesion in order to force us to surrender.”
US news outlet Axios, citing two officials, reported both sides were close to agreement on a one-page memorandum of understanding to end the war and set a framework for nuclear negotiations.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a key figure in initial talks in Islamabad, said he was “very hopeful that the current momentum will lead to a lasting agreement that secures durable peace and stability for the region and beyond.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call Wednesday that attacks on UAE civilian infrastructure and ships near the strait were “unjustified,” urging all parties to lift their dual blockade in the waterway “without delay and without conditions.”
Pezeshkian told Macron that any full reopening of the strait required the lifting of the US naval blockade, adding that “excessive demands, threatening statements, and failure to adhere to necessary frameworks by the United States have further complicated the path of diplomacy,” according to the Iranian presidency.
The call came as France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle transited the Suez Canal en route to the southern Red Sea, where it will pre-position for a possible multinational mission to restore navigation in the strait.
The deployment was intended to send “a signal that not only are we ready to secure the Strait of Hormuz but that we are also capable of doing so,” a Macron aide told reporters.
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are leading the initiative, which more than 40 countries have joined in military planning.
Investors welcomed the pause in US escort operations through the Strait, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closing at record highs.
That led to Tokyo’s Nikkei index soaring Thursday to lead another strong rally across Asian stocks. Oil prices also held the week’s steep losses on hopes of a deal to end the war.
But in Tehran, one resident told Paris-based AFP journalists that the prospect of any deal with the current Iranian government was “terrifying.”
“We’ve gone through so much hardship and suffering, and no achievements for the people?” said translator Azadeh, 43.
“I honestly just hope they finish this regime.”
On the Lebanese front, Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs Wednesday in the first such attack in nearly a month, killing a senior Hezbollah commander from its elite Radwan force, a source close to the Iran-backed group told AFP.
At least 11 others were killed in strikes across the country’s south and east, Lebanon’s health ministry said.
The Israeli military said in a statement Thursday that an “explosive drone impact” had wounded four of its soldiers — one severely — in southern Lebanon the previous day.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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