TRUMP RULES OUT RENEWED WAR WITH IRAN, SAYS FRESH STRIKES ‘HIGHLY UNLIKELY’

US President Donald Trump has described a resumption of hostilities with Iran as “highly unlikely” ahead of his scheduled meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Monday.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch fresh strikes against Iran in recent weeks, with US media reports suggesting that military operations could resume after last Tuesday’s midterm elections.

However, speaking in an interview with CNN on Sunday, the US president said renewed fighting was unlikely, although he stressed that his decision would depend on whether Iran agreed to a strong deal.

He said, “I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard. I hit them so hard. You don’t know how hard I hit them.”

Trump is expected to meet Qatar’s Prime Minister, who also serves as the country’s foreign minister, at the White House on Monday.

The meeting will mark his first engagement with a foreign leader since his Republican Party suffered a major defeat in the midterm elections, losing control of Congress.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi suggested on Sunday that diplomatic efforts to end the conflict had been suspended as parties assessed the political implications of the US election results.

“For the past few days, there has been no more travel (by mediators), and the reason for this is the shock that the election results in the United States have caused to everyone,” Araghchi told state television.

He added that discussions on the next steps would depend on how long it took the parties involved to assess the outcome of the elections.

‘They had enough’

Trump has acknowledged that the unpopular war with Iran, which began with US-Israeli strikes in late February, contributed partly to his Republican Party’s poor performance in the midterm elections.

Araghchi, in a post on X on Monday, claimed that the US president was aware of widespread American opposition to Israel.

He wrote, “Americans are evidently sick and tired of Israel bamboozling US administrations into Forever Wars. They had enough. So has our region.”

During his Sunday interview with CNN, Trump also argued that Iran’s worsening economic situation would eventually force its leadership to accept Washington’s demands.

He described Iran as a failing country, citing what he claimed was an inflation rate of 301 per cent, and said the country was facing severe financial difficulties following US military operations.

However, official Iranian figures put the country’s year-on-year inflation at nearly 90 per cent in September.

Meanwhile, Iranian state television reported that Qeshm Island, located in the Strait of Hormuz, came under attack overnight on Sunday, hours after the official IRNA news agency reported two explosions in the area.

Several regional countries, including Qatar and Pakistan, have made repeated attempts to broker a lasting end to the conflict, but their efforts have yet to produce a final agreement.

Although large-scale fighting has largely subsided, tensions remain high as Iran continues efforts to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a major route for global energy supplies, while the US Navy maintains a counterblockade of Iranian ports.