Are the United States repeating the mistakes that lead to endless wars?

War in Iran: Trump postpones ultimatum to April 6

The Opinion (with AFP)

Washington – Donald Trump has postponed his ultimatum for strikes on the Iranian energy sector by ten days, stating that discussions with Iran, whose capital was heavily hit again on Friday morning by Israel, are “going very well.” His Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, arrived in France on Friday, according to an AFP journalist, for the second day of a G7 meeting, during which he is expected to push his counterparts to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. It is to force access to this critical global trade route for hydrocarbons that the US president threatened to destroy power plants in Iran. However, “at the request of the Iranian government,” he has postponed his ultimatum “until Monday, April 6 at 8:00 PM, Washington time,” the destruction of power plants in Iran, he announced on Thursday. This new delay has brought some calm to oil prices, which are slightly decreasing on Friday. The global benchmark Brent crude oil price was around $107, remaining more than 40% higher than before the conflict. To the satisfaction of the American president, Iran has, according to him, allowed “ten ships” to pass through Ormuz. For several days, Donald Trump has alternated between threats of stronger strikes on Iran and assurances that the conflict will end. “Discussions are continuing and, contrary to what the lying media says (…), they are going very well,” he declared on his Truth Social network, also stating that Iran is more willing than him to negotiate to end the war. Tehran refuses to use the term “discussion” at this stage, but, according to an anonymous source quoted on Thursday by the Tasnim news agency, Iran has “officially” and “through intermediaries” transmitted a response to the American plan consisting of 15 points. It has set conditions for a cessation of hostilities and now awaits “a response from the other party.” Meanwhile, the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, said they targeted military and energy targets in Israel and Gulf countries on Friday with missiles and drones. Strikes in the heart of Tehran Saturday will mark the first month of the war, triggered by the joint US and Israeli offensive against Iran on February 28 and extended to the entire Middle East, fueling fears for the global economy and oil and gas supply. While Washington seems to be seeking a diplomatic way out of the war, Israel is showing its determination to intensify its military campaign with new strikes on Friday on Tehran and the southern suburbs of Beirut. The Israeli army said it again carried out extensive strikes on unspecified infrastructure in the Iranian capital, and explosions were heard and smoke seen in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, considered a Hezbollah stronghold by Israel. Lebanon was drawn into the conflict on March 2 with retaliations for the assassination of the Iranian supreme leader’s pro-Iranian movement on Israel and is paying a heavy toll, with over 1,100 deaths, according to authorities, and over a million displaced people. Israel has remained silent on the exchanges between Washington and Iran, via Pakistan, to stop the fighting. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tactic of fighting both in Iran and Lebanon, however, is no longer a consensus, with the Israeli opposition leader, Yair Lapid, criticizing the combat as “without strategy, without necessary means, and with far too few soldiers.” Israeli army spokesman Effie Defrin acknowledged Thursday evening that the Israeli army needed “additional forces.” AFP bureaus in Tehran, Jerusalem, Dubai, Baghdad, Beirut, and Washington – Agence France-Presse