Relax, it will all work out, says Trump, as Iran hangs up

Key Takeaways

• TOI correspondent from Washington Just hours after US President Donald Trump assured Americans that Iran "really wants to make a deal" and urged “negatively chirping” critics to "sit back and relax (because) it will all work out well in the end," the Middle East moved in the opposite direction.The three-month-old conflict lurched back toward open warfare on Monday as both sides reported fresh military strikes, Tehran suspended communications with Washington, and oil markets reacted with alarm to the prospect that diplomacy may once again be collapsing.The immediate trigger was Iran's decision to halt indirect exchanges with the US through mediators, blaming continued Israeli military operations in Lebanon.
• Iranian officials argued that truce in Lebanon had been part of the broader understandings to end the conflict and accused Washington of either being unable or unwilling to restrain its closest Middle Eastern ally.“The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
• Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts.
• The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Aragchi said, as the tentative truce in the Gulf appeared to be disintegrating.The US said it had conducted strikes against Iranian military facilities after Tehran allegedly targeted American assets and downed a US drone.
• Iran, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for attacks on American military installations in the Gulf region, including a reported strike aimed at a US base in Kuwait.The result is a familiar but increasingly dangerous pattern: diplomacy by day, missiles by night.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei accused Washington of sending contradictory signals, saying the US simultaneously talks about negotiations while continuing military operations and backing Israeli actions in Lebanon.