President Trump characterized Tuesday's negotiations with Iran positively and said the Strait of Hormuz would reopen soon. He also warned Iran would be hit hard if a deal is not reached, while Qatar said mediators were making progress and Iran denied that talks were underway.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday's negotiations with Iran lasted the entire day, characterizing the talks positively even as he threatened to hit Iran hard if a deal with Tehran is not reached. According to Reuters: "If they back out again, they are going to get hit really hard," Trump said.
Qatar cites progress, Iran denies talks
Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, a main route for energy supplies from the Middle East, after fighting between the two countries began. Trump said the waterway would reopen very soon, warning that Iran would be hit hard if it did not.
Qatar said Tuesday that mediators were making progress toward ending the Iran war. Yet Tehran denied Trump's assertion that talks were under way.
War death toll and rights concerns
The Iran war began on February 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran retaliated with strikes on Israel and on Gulf states hosting U.S. bases. Since then, U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
Trump's rhetoric during the conflict has drawn criticism from rights experts, who have condemned his threats to target Iranian civilian infrastructure and an April threat to destroy Iran's civilization. Iran has warned that if the U.S. carried out such threats, Iranian forces would target regional energy and economic facilities.
International law experts in the U.S. said in April that such attacks could amount to war crimes, since the 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians.
Source: Commodities & Futures News
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