Despite President Donald Trump’s disputed claim that the United States is engaged in peace talks with Iran, multiple White House officials predicted that the U.S. war against Iran is likely to “significantly intensify," and “very soon,” Zeteo reported on Monday.
Launched on Feb. 28, the U.S. war against Iran has sent tremors through the world economy, frustrating the White House and prompting Trump to issue a genocidal threat earlier this month to destroy Iran’s entire civilization. While Trump ultimately backed down from his threat, he re-issued it on Sunday, vowing to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure should they not agree to end the conflict on the White House’s terms.
Trump has since claimed that a U.S. delegation is expected to meet with Iranian officials in Pakistan on Monday for another round of peace talks, a claim that Tehran has outright refuted. Trump has expressed optimism about the chances for a negotiated settlement between Washington and Tehran, but behind the scenes, his own officials have a far more dire outlook.
“Two senior US officials and two Trump advisers I spoke to this weekend all expected the war to significantly intensify very soon,” wrote Zeteo’s Asawin Suebsaeng in the outlet’s report Monday.
“As he continues threatening textbook examples of blatant war crimes, Trump is at least publicly claiming that he’s optimistic about the latest round of supposed peace talks in Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, the Iranians signaled this week that they very much are not and that they consider these peace talks to be a farce. An Iranian official said earlier today that while no final decision had been made, Tehran so far had no plans to attend any upcoming talks in Islamabad.”
Whether the U.S. war against Iran does end up escalating in the coming days remains to be seen, but whatever direction the conflict takes could have historic consequences, Suebsaeng warned.
“Whatever happens in the near term, we as a nation are at a juncture in modern history where it is commonplace, if not wholly expected, for our genocidal president – in our name, funded by our hard-earned tax money – to dangle horrific, ‘civilization’-ending war crimes on civilian targets any time he feels like it… and for our GOP-controlled Congress to just let him do it whenever he wants,” Suebsaeng wrote.