US President Donald Trump conceded this week that the chances of renegotiating the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – from which he withdrew in May of last year – are dwindling, citing ongoing tensions in the Gulf while describing the Islamic Republic as a “state of terror.”
The White House has accused Tehran of orchestrating numerous recent attacks on oil tankers in and around the Strait of Hormuz, and of ordering its proxies to target US assets in Iraq as well as critical infrastructure inside Saudi Arabia.
In the latest incident, Iranian military forces seized and impounded the British-flagged Stena Impero and continue to hold its 23-member crew.
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he was “ready for the absolute worst,” a probable allusion to a possible military conflict with the Iranian regime. The US has imposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic Republic since nixing the nuclear pact.
The Media Line spoke about these issues and more with Prof. Rockford Weitz, director of the Fletcher Maritime Studies Program at Tufts University.
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