U.S. President Donald Trump announced this morning that his 48 hour deadline for Iran to re-open the strait of Hormuz, or face US attacks against its electric grid, is POSTPONED for 5 days.
Interesting choice of words. Not "the Islamic Republic", not "the Islamic regime", but "the country of Iran."
The President told assembled media outlets that "negotiations are going very well."
There's just one, minor, problem: NO NEGOTIATIONS appear to be be taking place, anywhere, at all. An Iranian official told Fars News Agency, which is aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, that there is 'no direct or indirect contact with Trump'.
The unnamed source said Trump backed down after 'hearing that our targets would include all power stations in West Asia.'
Many people have told me this morning "Trump is making it all up as he goes along. These are matters of life and death; of war or peace. He seems to be making it all up out of whole cloth!"
Iran, for its part, made clear that if the US and/or Israel attack it's electric infrastructure, that Iran will retaliate by attacking the electric grid and the drinking water de-salinization plants of any country in the Middle East hosting US military bases.
Such an attack would wipe out the fresh drinking water for tens-of-millions of people in the Middle East, creating an instant humanitarian crisis.
Trump warned Iran that if they were to do that, the effects would be akin to those of a "weapon of mass destruction" which may prompt the United States to use such weapons of its own. That was a not so subtle threat of nuclear attack.
Apparently, the wild escalation in rhetoric, and the horrifying escalation to nuclear talk, was chilled somehow overnight, and this morning Trump declared he had postponed his 48 hour deadline.
(HT REMARK: Call me cynical, but Trump's "5 days" puts us to this Friday . . . when markets close.
That gives the incoming US Marines the 5 or so days they need to get into position, so when the weekend arrives, massive amphibious landing to grab Kharg Island, during which I fear we will suffer a huge death toll, which will be rightly seen as a gigantic screw-up, while markets are all safely closed to limit the financial chaos until Monday.)
