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President Trump came to the lectern of the White House briefing room Monday for a lengthy news conference about the war on Iran.
Trump, flanked by key allies including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, spent much of the first part of the event outlining how an airman who had been forced to eject from a fighter jet over Iran had been rescued.
But inevitably much of the attention in the jam-packed room — and in the wider world — focused on where the war goes next.
The U.S. and Israel have hit more than 11,000 targets since they began their assault on Feb. 28. But Tehran has proven defiant.
Iran has also proven strategically adept at piling pressure on Trump by reducing shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to a trickle, sending the price of oil — and price of gas at the pump — soaring.
Here are the big takeaways from Trump’s Monday appearance.
Mixed signals on what’s next
Trump’s propensity to give ambiguous — and sometimes plain confusing — messages on his strategy with respect to Iran is undimmed.
At times on Monday, he sounded a very ominous tone.
He described how the United States had a plan, made possible by its military might, “where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business — burning, exploding and never to be used again. I mean, complete demolition by 12 o’clock.”
But, almost in the next breath, he suggested destruction on such a near-apocalyptic scale would be something he would prefer to avoid — in part because of the long-lasting economic damage that would result.
“We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation [after the war]. And you know what? If that’s the case, the last thing we want to do is start with power plants — which are among the most expensive thing — and bridges,” he said.
A lot of haziness hangs over whether there is any realistic hope of a ceasefire — never mind a permanent cessation of hostilities.
“We are dealing with them,” Trump said of the Iranians, and it is “going fine.”
The sliver of hope was accompanied by virtually no detail, however.
Adding a final wrinkle of ambiguity, Trump was asked whether, if Iran wanted to meet his deadline, it needed to make a deal with the U.S. or reopen the Strait of Hormuz. His answer was, in essence: both.
“We have to have a deal that’s acceptable to me and part of that is going to be, we want free traffic of oil and everything,” he said.
Trump brushes off suggestion of potential war crimes
The issue of potential war crimes has become far more acute as Trump has threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants and perhaps water desalination facilities.
Attacks on civilian infrastructure are considered violations of the laws of war under the Geneva Conventions.
For example Article 52 of the Geneva Conventions asserts that attacks “shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action.”
Article 54 prohibits, among other things, attacks on “drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the civilian population.”
Trump shrugged off questions on the topic during Monday’s news conference.
When Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times pressed Trump on the issue, the president pivoted to an attack on the Times and addressed the substance of the question only briefly saying he was “not at all” concerned about the possibility that some of his threatened attacks could amount to war crimes.
To be clear, it is not obvious what sanction Trump would face even in a hypothetical where war crimes were carried out. The U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court.
Still, his brushing off of the question will further fuel alarm in the wider world, including among traditional U.S. allies.
Trump threatens action over news story on downed plane
Generalized attacks by Trump on the media are par for the course.
But his jabs took an unexpected shape Monday when he complained vociferously about a story that had revealed the airman was missing after Iran downed an F-15E jet.
Trump seemed particularly fixated on finding the person who had given the information to the media.
“We have to find that leaker because that’s a sick person,” he said at one point.
He suggested the administration would pressure the media itself to give up the leaker’s identity.
“The person that did the story will go to jail” unless she or he identifies their source, he added.
He also said, “We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’”
Trump did not specify the news organization, nor the specific story, to which he was referring.
Fresh jabs at NATO — and other traditional allies
Trump’s grievance that traditional U.S. allies have not backed his efforts in Iran continue to fester.
He is particularly exercised about what he considers a lack of support from other NATO members.
He reiterated on Monday that he is “very disappointed in NATO” and asserted that the alliance’s failure to directly joint the U.S. and Israeli war amounted to a dark “mark on NATO that will never disappear — never disappear in my mind.”
He once again derided the United Kingdom in particular, saying scornfully that, in naval terms, “they have two old, broken aircraft-carriers [that] barely work.”
But Trump also broadened his target field on Monday, complaining with more vigor than previously that Australia, Japan and South Korea had also failed to step up as he hoped they would.
A US toll on the Strait of Hormuz?
One of the more peculiar moments of the news conference came toward its end, when Trump was asked whether he was willing to end the conflict even in a scenario where Iran could charge tolls on shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Us charging tolls?” Trump asked.
“Iran,” the reporter clarified.
“What about us charging tolls?” Trump continued. “I’d rather do that then let them have them. Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won, OK?”
The reality is that de facto Iranian control over the strait is a major problem for the U.S.
Of course that situation could change. But, right now, the U.S. has clearly not “won” on the issue.
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