US President Donald Trump described the brief truce with Iran as a “waste of time“ during a campaign rally in Corinth, Mississippi. He said Washington had no choice to start hostilities and that the war would end “very soon“.
“This should have been done a long time ago”, Trump told supporters, without giving a specific deadline for ending the conflict. The statement was made on October 26, days before the midterm elections for the US Congress, scheduled for November 3.
The truce fell apart after a short period
According to the Associated Press, this is about the truce agreed in June between the US and Iran. The agreement quickly fell apart, without achieving its stated goals, including the start of negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program.
“We made a little truce, which I never really liked. I thought it was a waste of time,“, Trump said. According to him, the US agreed to the pause in order to allow several ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We want to be nice, but I think it was a waste of time“, the US president added.
Strait of Hormuz remains at the center of the conflict
The Strait of Hormuz has become one of the main points of contention in the war. After the start of hostilities, hundreds of commercial ships remained blocked in the area, and US attempts to organize their safe passage led to new tensions with Iran.
In the US operation to remove vessels from the strait, only two commercial ships passed through, the Associated Press reported. Carriers and insurers continued to rate the area as high-risk, and freedom of navigation remained an unresolved issue.
The military conflict began after US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. In July, Trump had already declared the ceasefire ended after Washington launched new strikes in response to attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
In Mississippi, Trump campaigned for the re-election of Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. The war with Iran, fuel prices and the consequences of the blockade of the strait are among the issues influencing the Republican Party's election campaign.
Sources: apnews.com, axios.com, washingtonpost.com