Trump demands ‘unconditional surrender’ from Iran
Trump demands ‘unconditional surrender’ from Iran
U.S. President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” on Friday, all but erasing hopes that Washington would be willing to negotiate a cease-fire with Tehran in the near future. “There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that after that happens, the White House will work with its allies and new Iranian leadership (which Trump himself has vowed to personally help choose) to “MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.”
This is a stark contrast from Trump’s initial public stance. Just one day after the U.S.-Israel war against Iran began, Trump told the Atlantic that “They [Iran] want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.” Since then, White House officials have repeatedly claimed that the conflict is not about regime change, even as Trump continues to make statements to the contrary.
Trump’s unwillingness to negotiate clashes with the hopes of other foreign leaders. According to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, several countries have offered to mediate peace talks. Although Pezeshkian did not specify which nations have reached out, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, and Turkey have reportedly all offered to broker negotiations since the war erupted on Saturday.
“The situation could spiral beyond anyone’s control,” United Nations chief António Guterres wrote on X on Friday. “It is time to stop the fighting and get to serious diplomatic negotiations.”
Yet, Tehran also appears unlikely to come to the table. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News on Thursday that Tehran refuses to negotiate with Washington. “The fact is that we don’t have any positive experience of negotiating with the United States, you know, especially with this administration,” Araghchi said. “We negotiated twice, last year and this year, and then in the middle of negotiations, they attacked us.”
Pezeshkian echoed those concerns on Friday, writing, “Mediation should address those who underestimated the Iranian people and ignited this conflict.”
All the while, fighting continues to wreak havoc on the Middle East. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned late Thursday that firepower over Iran was about to “surge dramatically.” And on Friday, Israel intensified its military campaigns in Lebanon and Iran, carrying out heavy bombardments against Hezbollah targets in Beirut as well as the destruction of a sprawling underground bunker designed for Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The escalating conflict has finally stirred oil markets after a week of relative complacency. On Friday, the benchmark price of crude oil rose 8 percent to more than $92 a barrel in London, with an even bigger 12 percent rise, reaching $90 in Washington. Gasoline and diesel prices around the world—but especially in the United States—followed suit, and other refined products, such as jet fuel, spiked even faster.
Also on Friday, the Trump administration released the first details of its plan to have the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) offer a backstop for maritime insurance to coax tankers back into the Strait of Hormuz, where almost no ships are moving due to sky-high insurance rates and the threat of being attacked by Iranian drones and missiles.
But the U.S. reinsurance plan, starting at $20 billion worth of coverage for select elements of certain ships, is likely inadequate to address the financial challenge of providing cover for the stalled maritime fleet. Experts say that shipping needs insurance coverage on the order of $350 billion to begin to unblock tanker transits in Hormuz—far beyond the DFC’s initial plan or even its entire war chest.
Courtesy by FP
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