Trump calls new Iran strikes ‘highly unlikely’ as land blockade begins
Donald Trump said further attacks on Iran were “highly unlikely” to be necessary if Tehran signs “a very strong agreement”, while warning that three aircraft carriers are “fully locked and loaded” and that “we have 38 bridges in our site that we can knock down in literally one hour”. Task Force Iron Gate, announced by Central Command on Saturday to choke Iran’s land borders and the Caspian, is “in full force and effect”, he said. Marco Rubio called Iran’s demands “outrageous and ridiculous”.
On 60 Minutes the president defended the eight-month war as “an emphatic yes” because “you can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon”, and said he was “not looking” to escalate. He agreed with JD Vance that the war and petrol prices cost Republicans the midterms. The new task force extends the months-old naval blockade to overland trade, targeting “advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams”; the Revolutionary Guard dismissed it as “wordplay”. Mr Rubio, speaking in Florida before the G7 meeting in Paris, said talks had “not been very productive” and that Washington was not “on the verge of a breakthrough”, though he called the war “not necessarily popular, but necessary”. Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said his two-day implementation offer “stands” if the United States ends “war on all fronts” — “or choose war, and see our alert and battle-hardened Warriors rain down hell”. Tehran wants sanctions lifted and the war ended before negotiating. Mr Trump meets Qatar’s prime minister at the White House on Monday; watch whether the Doha plan survives the rhetoric.