Reported by Al Jazeera
The US president has been sending mixed messages after saying the war on Iran was partly to blame for the Republican defeat at the midterms.
Since Tuesday’s midterms, United States President Donald Trump has shifted his rhetoric between threatening Iran and suggesting that a resolution to the war is near.
After accepting a devastating Republican defeat at the elections and acknowledging his deeply unpopular war on Iran was partly to blame, Trump told reporters on Thursday the US may have to “destroy” the rest of Iran, adding that people will “know soon enough” if he acts.
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On Friday, US forces carried out what he described as “minor strikes” against Iranian air defence systems, and Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, reported two missiles had again struck Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
But on the same day, Trump said the US administration is talking to Iranian representatives and told reporters, “We’ve made a lot of progress with Iran.”
Observers say Iran’s intransigence over the demands it has made of the US before it will reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz to shipping, balanced against Trump’s drubbing at the US midterms, has painted the US president into a tricky corner over what to do next.
So besides the mixed messages from him, what is happening on the ground and what is most likely to happen next? Here is what we know:
“We’re dealing with them now. They want to make a deal,” the US president told reporters, without providing further details.
On Saturday, Majed al-Ansari, spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dismissed claims circulating on X that negotiations between the US and Iran had failed, warning that such claims benefit “only those seeking to prolong the war”.
Trump confirmed the US had carried out military strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Friday, while Iranian state media reported two missile strikes in the Suza area of the island. This follows what the US described as “ defensive strikes ” on the island, considered to be a primary naval base for Iran and housing “ missile cities “, earlier this week.