President Donald Trump is ready to shatter his already shaky ceasefire with Iran on one macabre condition, according to U.S. officials.
The 79-year-old has grown “bored” with negotiations by his own admission and could resume bombing campaigns if Iranian forces kill American soldiers, insiders told the Wall Street Journal.
A White House official told the Daily Beast that while Trump “prefers a diplomatic solution,” the president “has been clear about the consequences if Iran refuses to make a deal.”
He has also “been clear about his redlines,” they added, noting that his main demand is that Iran cease its nuclear operation. “President Trump holds the cards and has all the time he needs to make the best deal for the United States and the world,” they said.
The bombshell comes as the cessation in violence teeters on the brink of collapse, with Iran this week targeting regional U.S. bases and Kuwait’s international airport with missiles and drones.
The peace agreement was signed on April 7 and was originally supposed to last two weeks, but was later extended indefinitely to help broker a lasting peace, which is yet to materialize. The president has been reluctant to resume violence, signaling a willingness to wait it out.
However, doubts have been cast on the likelihood of long-term peace due to flare-ups that have strained the current ceasefire, officials said.
On Tuesday, U.S. forces struck and disabled an Iranian-linked oil tanker, prompting Iranian drone attacks on Gulf shipping and subsequent U.S. strikes on Iranian military sites on Qeshm Island. The escalation culminated on Wednesday, when Iran launched its largest barrage since the truce—firing missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain, temporarily shutting Kuwait’s airport, causing casualties, and triggering U.S. and Bahraini air defenses.
“They are happening in response to an Iranian action,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, insisting the fighting does not mark a return to full-scale conflict. “If they don’t shoot at those ships, we don’t shoot, but we have to respond.”
“In that part of the world, ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner,” Trump explained in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “It takes two to tango. We hit them very hard on something else, and so they were responding.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, has delivered some fighting talk of his own. He said on Wednesday that planned attacks on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, by Israel would herald a return to all-out war.
Israel also threatened to strike Beirut if the Iranian-backed militia group Hezbollah attacked.
The tension is compounded by the fact that the Iranian blockade on the Strait of Hormuz continues to cause strain on global oil markets, causing issues at home for Trump as everyday Americans sour on his war as their finances take a beating. He insists, however, that he “doesn’t care” about the midterms in November.
Officials have complained that his focus is solely on the war. “The administration is all-consumed by this conflict. They’re pretty much in a funk with it—or fatigue—in that there’s nothing happening,” said one person close to the White House, according to Politico.
“Is this how MAGA ends—with a whimper, not a bang?” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist.
The White House has projected a positive image. “President Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Daily Beast on Wednesday. The White House has been approached for comment on Trump’s reported conditions for returning to full-blown war.
