Trump, Rubio Insist Iran War Is Over, Even As Missiles Fly During Ceasefire
When the ceasefire with Iran went into effect last month, President Trump was clear that if the Iranians failed to end their nuclear program, or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the bombs would return to the air. “If there is no agreement, the fighting starts again,” he said, making it clear that this was a temporary stop.
But it turns out, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that the war actually ended sometime after the conflict, or he told reporters at a press conference at the White House on Tuesday. “Operation Epic Fury is over,” he said. “We have accomplished the purpose of that work.” An attempt to reopen the border, Mr. Rubio said, it is a self-defense and humanitarian operation that will lead to direct military trade with the Iranians only if the American fleet is on fire.
Later on Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced that he was suspending even that effort – which was only one day old, and succeeded in freeing a few ships – “for a short time,” saying it did not mean “substantial progress” on the deal with Iran. But he kept the US blockade in place, which is part of a strategy of great economic pressure.
However, the suspension of Mr. Trump’s attempt to steer the ships out of the sea appears to be at odds with the administration’s view that it was unacceptable for Iran to block the international waterway, and that only the United States has the power to reopen it.
For the White House, insisting that the war is over was the latest leap in an effort to put the war that has caused a major political crisis during Mr. Trump’s presidency. But just a declaration does not make it true. The arrows were still flying. Both sides insist they control traffic on the waterway.
And despite Mr. Rubio’s declaration that the war’s objectives had been achieved, they apparently were not. In 38 days of intense fighting, the United States was hit, according to the Pentagon, about 13,000 targets. But destroying the target was not the only point. Mr. Trump himself explained his intentions on the morning of February 28, when he told the country, in a previously recorded video, that he had five major goals.
The first, of course, was to ensure that Iran “will never have a nuclear weapon.” But he went on to add that the United States should destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles and ballistic missiles, sink its navy, end its support for terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas and, ultimately, create the conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow their government.
“Your hour of freedom is at hand,” he said at the time.
The Iranian Navy has apparently left, as Mr. Trump often comments. But it’s the only one left off the list. So far, Iran’s nuclear arsenal has not been touched and there is no agreement, at least not yet, to export it or clean it up so that it can easily be used to make weapons. Although intelligence estimates vary, US assessments suggest that more than half of Iran’s missiles and explosives have survived. It is too early to say about the support of the participating groups, which were dispersed by the Israeli attack.
And Mr. Trump has abandoned the talk of changing the country’s leadership, suggesting that at one point he never called it. Sometimes he insists that the regime change has already happened, citing the emergence of a new supreme leader and other officials, who replaced those who were killed. For many Iran experts — and many in the U.S. intelligence community — that’s a personnel change.
However, both Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio has many reasons for Epic Fury to end at some unspecified date in the past. Congress has been increasingly silent on the War Powers Act, which requires a congressional approval vote after US troops have been involved in combat for more than 60 days. His political base is broken on the question of whether Mr. Has Trump reneged on his promise to get America out of long wars? And Mr Trump delayed his trip to China once to make sure the war was over, that the United States was winning and that the strait was open before he touched down in Beijing. That trip is now scheduled for next Wednesday.
Mr. Trump’s language has changed, although he has not gone so far as to say the job is done. He can’t help but describe the current situation as a war, even if he has started to retreat. “Our country is booming right now, even though we’re at war — I call it a small war,” he said at a White House small business event on Monday.
In other speeches, he included the word “war” with other more positive connotations: Attacking Iran was “an adventure,” he said. Sometimes he described it as a “detour,” which made it sound like a weekend trip through the Middle East stuck in traffic.
While it all sounds like simple political wordplay, any actual declaration that the war is over represents a significant change in strategy, even in a war where the White House seems to be making its next move every day. In the past nine weeks, America’s military power, and the hope that it can start again, has been an advantage for Mr. Trump celebrated it like a bell after the talks. Nothing will focus on Iranian minds, he suggested, like the prospect of further destruction.
Indeed, when talks on the future of the nuclear program broke down in late February, the US bombing was designed to force Iran into a deal.
But the bombing campaign, while deadly and devastating, has not changed Iran’s fundamental positions, at least not yet. And the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ success in stemming the tide – bottling tankers and cargo ships and sending oil and fertilizer markets into chaos – changed the dynamics. The frustration of Mr. Trump was clear: He threatened even more severe strikes – and attacks on power plants – if Iran refused to withdraw, spewing insults on social media.
The Iranians ignored it, and a few days later Mr. Then came the ceasefire.
But Iran’s restraint has weakened after Mr. Trump on Sunday announced a new operation to guide ships along the narrow border, along a path that was said to be free of mines. Iranian forces fired on two ships the next day, but the missiles were intercepted by American forces. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday that since the operation began, Iran has attacked US forces more than 10 times, but said the attacks were “all below the threshold of resuming major hostilities at this time.”
General Caine added that defining that border was a “political decision,” meaning that it was Mr. And Mr. Trump, pressed a few hours later to explain where that border was, told reporters, “You’re going to find out, because I’m going to let you know.”
“They know what to do,” he said of the Iranians. “They know what not to do.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday morning that the military’s new effort to target merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz should be understood as an entirely separate business, and a temporary defense effort.
“We’re not looking to fight,” said Mr. Hegseth, for the past few weeks has been celebrating America’s firepower against Iran and advocating “mass murder.” But he noted that US warships fired missiles and drones that Iran fired at ships and commercial vessels, and that Army Apache helicopters also sank six Iranian military boats that threatened the ships.
(Mr. Rubio compared the boats to Boston Whalers, small speedboats that are ubiquitous. He said the ones that were hit “are sitting on the bottom of the ocean, along with the entire Iranian navy.”)
Now the administration has moved away from declaring that military strikes will change Iran’s leaders and insisting that it is actually an economic shutdown that will do the trick. Mr. Rubio said the United States is now cutting off revenue that preserves “whatever is left of its faltering economy.”
And he called the Iranian pirates. “You cannot have a situation where the problems are closed to everyone, but they benefit from this crime — that will not happen,” he said. He said that only the United States has the power to open the Strait of Hormuz “as a mercy to the world.”
“In fact, we are the only ones who know,” he said. “If we live in a world where a rogue regime like the Iranian regime is allowed to call it the new normal for international shipping,” he added, “it won’t be long before you see that happening in many shipping lanes around the world.”
