WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said there have been good talks with Iran even as he reiterated his threats to target Pickaxe Mountain as well as bridges and power plants if a deal is not made with Tehran. In an interview with Fox News, Trump said he wanted to avoid targeting Iran's bridges and power plants if possible. "It's a very, very delicate balance. So I think we have a very strong position right now. They know I'm going to do that if they don't make a deal," Trump told the "Fox and Friends" programme. "We cannot have them break deals anymore." "We have had some very good talks," Trump said.
Trump is meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House after the two countries launched strikes against Iran in February. Trump was asked about reports that Netanyahu plans to talk to him about work happening at a site linked to Iran's nuclear programme known as Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran's main nuclear sites. "I don't need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi's telling me that because he wants me to stay involved," the Republican president said, referring to Netanyahu. "I know exactly what's going on at Pickaxe. It's not a big problem. We took out their nuclear sites, and we'll have to take out Pickaxe if we don't make a deal. We don't make a deal, we'll take it out very easily," Trump said.
- Hormuz Proposal
Meanwhile, Gulf states backed a plan to manage the Strait of Hormuz with Iran, including collecting voluntary fees for using it, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat said on Tuesday. A senior Iranian source said that Tehran had yet to respond to the proposals, intended to serve as a basis to end the disruption to trade through the strait caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week US bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn, said there were "good talks" under way with Iran but threatened to restart strikes unless negotiations deliver. Iran denies seeking to resume talks with the United States. Washington launched its renewed bombing campaign earlier this month to break Iran's grip on the strait, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.
Iran effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own after the United States and Israel attacked on February 28. A deal last month between the United States and Iran partially reopened it, but the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on ships using a channel it does not approve. Iran has said it wants to manage the strait, which controls the opposite shore, and charge service fees to ships that use it.
Washington wants to return to the status quo prior to the war, when ships were able to pass freely with no payments, and says charging mandatory fees would be illegal. Under the new proposal, Iran would not exercise sole control and fees would be voluntary, the Gulf source and Western diplomat briefed on the matter said.
- Global Impact
The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia's Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations. The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions. Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers met via video call on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in the conflict, including ways to intensify cooperation on issues related to freedom and safety of vessels through the waterway, a statement from the Qatari Foreign Ministry said.
Iran's joint military command again rejected a plan put forward by Trump for damages to vessels to be paid from frozen Iranian assets, state media reported. It said that any country or company that accepted such payments would be denied passage through the Strait of Hormuz by Iran's armed forces.
Trump also repeated a threat to potentially target Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Tehran's main nuclear sites, saying: "If we don't make a deal, we'll take it out very easily". Iran says it has not sought any new negotiations with the United States, which it accuses of violating the agreement reached last month on a framework for talks to end the war.
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