US President Donald Trump has signaled Monday to a temporary retreat in the war on Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, while stepping up attacks on European countries he said had failed to back the US effort, warning Washington would no longer help protect them.
The apparent shift suggests Trump is trying to avoid a wider conflict that could outlast the 4–6 week time frame he set at the start of the war, while leaving unresolved the closure of one of the world’s most important oil routes. It also marks a turn from his recent warnings that Washington could escalate by forcing the waterway open if Iran did not reopen the strait.
A delayed step
On Monday evening, Trump told aides he was prepared to end military operations against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remained largely closed and postpone efforts to reopen it until later,The Wall Street Journal reported.
Washington is reportedly focused on weakening Iran’s navy and missile stockpile, reducing the current level of hostilities, and pressuring Tehran diplomatically to restore freedom of trade.
Trump’s stance on the Strait of Hormuz has shifted repeatedly, especially after he threatened last week to bomb Iranian infrastructure if Iran did not reopen the waterway within 48 hours, a deadline he later extended to April 6.
In a post published Tuesday on Truth Social, Trump urged unnamed countries, while singling out Britain, to seize the strait themselves, or buy jet fuel from the United States, claiming it had enough supplies.
In a direct message to those countries, he wrote, “You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.”
Trump also claimed Iran had been destroyed, saying, “The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”
In mid-March, countries ignored or explicitly refused Trump’s call to send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran said it had closed on March 2 and has since targeted oil tankers and container ships passing through it while allowing others bound for China and elsewhere to pass.
In another post Tuesday, Trump said that France had refused to allow aircraft carrying military supplies to Israel to fly over its territory.
Trump added, “France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the ‘Butcher of Iran,’ who has been successfully eliminated!” in a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in the early hours of the war. “The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!”
Trump’s comments came as oil prices rose Tuesday to $108 a barrel on fears sparked by his threats to launch a ground attack, seize Iranian oil, and occupy Kharg Island.
“An American miscalculation”
Iranian state media reported Tuesday that Col. Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesman for Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya wartime operations headquarters, said the Iranian armed forces “will cut off the foot” of anyone who attacks Iran, and dismissed talk of taking control of the Strait of Hormuz as impossible.
He said what he described as the “miscalculations” of the US president and Israeli leaders had led them to judge the Iranian people and armed forces by “material and worldly standards.”
Those miscalculations, he said, meant the “unprecedented presence of the vigilant and revolutionary people on the streets” and the “steadfastness of the armed forces on the battlefield” had been impossible for the enemy to foresee.
Continuing reciprocal strikes
On the ground, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it carried out four “rapid, coordinated, and successful” operations on Tuesday as part of the 88th wave of Operation True Promise, under the codename “Ya Fatima Al-Zahraa,” targeting positions of US-Israeli forces in the region.
According to a Revolutionary Guard statement, an Israeli container ship identified as Express Halfung was hit by ballistic missiles, causing severe damage.
The Kuwaiti supertanker Al Salmi was also targeted by an Iranian drone on Tuesday, according to Dubai authorities, which said there had been no oil leak into Dubai waters as a result of the attack.
Israel’s ambulance service said Tuesday that eight people were lightly injured and taken to hospitals in Tel Aviv, while Israeli police reported projectile fragments falling after warnings of an Iranian missile barrage.
The semi-official Iranian Students News Agency ISNA reported, citing an unnamed Iranian Health Ministry official, that a water desalination plant on Iran’s Qeshm Island had gone out of service because of an airstrike.
The Iranian government also said US-Israeli strikes hit one of Iran’s largest pharmaceutical companies, which produces anesthetics and cancer drugs, on Tuesday.
These developments come as the US-Israeli war against Iran, which began at the end of February, continues amid growing fears that the confrontation could slide into further escalation, especially with US scenarios that include taking control of oil facilities.
