US President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned that Washington would respond if Iran failed to honour its agreement with the United States, while insisting that Tehran had been significantly weakened by recent
conflict and no longer possessed meaningful leverage over Washington.
“If Iran doesn’t live up to their agreement, or if they’re not behaving, I will do what I have to do,” Trump told reporters when asked about the future of the understanding reached between the two countries.
The warning comes days after Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed an interim agreement, paving the way for negotiations aimed at ending hostilities that erupted after US and Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent retaliation against Israel and Gulf states hosting American military bases.
Asked whether Iran now held leverage over him because of the agreement, Trump dismissed the suggestion and launched a blistering assessment of Tehran’s military and political condition.
“Oh, you’re so clever. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their leaders are all dead. Their whole country is a mess. Their economy is shot,” Trump said.
The US President claimed Iran had suffered devastating losses over the past four months, arguing that reports suggesting the country remained largely intact were misleading.
“Four months ago, they had a navy, 159 ships to be exact. It’s gone. The whole navy is gone. Their 250 airplanes, all gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. Their radar is gone,” he said.
Trump further asserted that most of Iran’s missile stockpiles, launch facilities and drone-manufacturing capabilities had been destroyed.
“Most of their missiles are gone. Most of their launching pads are gone. Most of their manufacturing capacity for drones and missiles is gone. About 87 per cent gone,” he said.
He also claimed Iran’s leadership structure had been severely damaged.
“Their first level of leaders, gone. Their second level of leaders is gone. Their third level of leaders, you have to hear the conversations,” Trump said.
Trump also used the opportunity to criticise US media organisations, accusing them of understating the impact of the conflict on Iran.
“The reason that I won in a landslide, even though I got 92 per cent negative press, all fake press, is because nobody believes the press anymore,” he said.
According to Trump, reports suggesting Iran was in a similar position to where it was months ago ignored the scale of damage inflicted on the country’s military infrastructure.
DISPUTE OVER UNFROZEN FUNDS
Reuters reported that Trump also defended the agreement’s provisions on frozen Iranian assets, claiming that money released under the arrangement would ultimately benefit American farmers.
“All that money’s coming back in the form of purchases of food which they desperately need. They have 91 million people, they can’t feed them. So, the money that we lift is going to go to our farmers,” Trump said.
However, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati as saying Tehran was under no obligation to purchase agricultural goods exclusively from the United States under the memorandum of understanding.
HORMUZ STRAIT AND NUCLEAR TALKS
Separately, AFP reported that the United States has temporarily suspended sanctions on Iranian oil after Vice President JD Vance said Tehran would allow United Nations nuclear inspectors to return.
The US Treasury said sanctions would be paused through August 21, citing Iran’s commitment to ensuring free transit through the Strait of Hormuz and permitting inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to enter the country.
Commenting on the negotiations, Trump said progress was being made while stressing that Iran would never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“We’re negotiating, we’ll see how that all goes, but we have two things,” Trump said.
“We have an open Strait, and we have a country that will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Trump also declared that the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy shipping route that Iran had previously closed during the conflict, was now functioning normally.
“We’re doing very well with respect to the Hormuz Strait. We took in more oil yesterday than has ever gone through the strait,” he said.
The negotiations in Switzerland are expected to continue this week, with mediators Pakistan and Qatar saying both sides have agreed on a roadmap aimed at securing a final agreement within 60 days.
