US President Donald Trump on Monday declared that he "did not care" that the peace talks with Iran were over due to alleged ceasefire violations—a major development in the three-month-long war in the Gulf.
“I really don’t care. I couldn’t care less,” Trump told CNBC, adding that he felt the protracted talks had become "very boring".
He has also contacted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone "to ask" him about Israel's actions on Lebanon and Gaza that have nearly burned the ceasefire in place.
He added that he wasn’t worried about oil prices, which spiked by 7 per cent following earlier reports speculating that Iran could suspend the talks and block the strait.
This comes a short while after Iranian media said that Tehran would be cutting off contact with the US via mediators, which would have a major impact on the ongoing peace talks for the three-month-old war in the Gulf.
This is Tehran's latest response to what it called ceasefire violations by US-Israel forces, focusing on Tel Aviv's military operations in Lebanon against the Iran-backed militia Hezbollah.
“No (US-Iran) dialogue will take place” until Israel fully withdraws from occupied areas in Lebanon and stops all attacks in both Beirut and Gaza, as per a report from semi-official news agency Tasnim.
It is not just the negotiations that have stopped—according to reports from Iranian state TV, the ceasefire agreed upon in early April could also end if Israel were to continue its actions in Lebanon and Gaza.
Another point of contention in the ceasefire—the state of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz—also sees a fresh twist as Iran has also vowed to "completely block" the crucial waterway.
Iranian officials added in the Tasnim report that the Hormuz block would also be accompanied by increased activity at other fronts, including the Bab Al Mandeb Strait, “in order to punish the Zionists and their supporters".
