President Donald Trump on Monday said he would not know whether the war with Iran is ending, or escalating, before his Tuesday 8pm deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“I can’t tell you, I don’t know. I can’t tell you. It depends on what they do,” Trump said when asked whether he was ending the war, as he had previously suggested, or escalating, referring to his threat to bomb bridges and power plants. “This is a difficult period. They have until tomorrow at eight o’clock.”
Trump’s uncertainty about the direction of the war led to a White House meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine to signal the discovery of two US airmen deep inside Iranian soil.
“They have ’til tomorrow. Now, we’ll see what happens. I can tell you, they’re negotiating, we think, in good faith. We’ll find out,” Trump said. “We’re getting the support of some amazing countries that want this to stop because it’s affecting them too. A lot of people are affected by this.”
He threatened again that if Iran does not act, “they will not have bridges, they will not have power plants – the stone age.”
He said he gave the Iranians an extra 11 days after giving seven days the first time because “I thought it was not appropriate the day after Easter. I want to be a good person.”
