Entering third week of war with Iran, Trump faces tough questions

NEW YORK, Mar 16 (APP): The US-Israel war with Iran entered its third week on Saturday, with military attacks, which met with defiant Iranian retaliatory strikes and economic disruption roiling the Middle East as President Donald Trump sends mixed signals about how long the conflict could last.

The foreign policy strategy Trump publicly laid out as his playbook for the conflict — to come down hard on the government, decapitating its leadership, and hope the remnants would capitulate — has not worked, with Tehran looking for new ways to expand the war and maximize pain for the U.S. administration.

On Friday, the Pentagon announced that an additional expeditionary unit of 2,500 Marines was being deployed to the region to support the effort.

“Starting wars is an easy matter,” Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, wrote on social media. “Ending them does not happen with a few tweets.

“We will not leave you until you admit your mistake and pay its price,” he added.

Meanwhile, criticism is rising across the United States regarding a combination of active military operations in the Middle East and renewed, accelerating inflationary pressures. The situation has created significant economic anxiety, with economists warning that a prolonged conflict in Iran, combined with ongoing trade policies, risks making life significantly more difficult for Americans by reversing progress on inflation and driving up the cost of essentials.

More than 2,000 people have been killed across the region since the U.S. launched joint strikes with Israel on Feb. 28, especially targeting Tehran’s nuclear and missile capabilities, as well as Iran’ Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound. Also hit were civilian targets, including a girls’ primary school in Minab, in Iran’s Hormozgan province, killing at least 165 schoolgirls and injuring many others.

NPR, a US TV network, citing various government sources, reported that the current death toll includes more than 1,200 civilians in Iran, at least 13 U.S. service members, 14 people in Israel and hundreds of others in Gulf states.

Trump claimed late Friday that Iran was “totally defeated” and “wants a deal,” hours after he told reporters the operation was “way ahead of schedule.”
However, Iran has not acknowledged this claim, with top officials, including the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, vowing to continue fighting, keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed, and rejecting ceasefires, indicating continued resistance.

It was the latest in a series of shifting comments from the president about the estimated duration of the war, which he initially predicted could last four or five weeks. Earlier on Friday, he suggested the conflict would be over when he could “feel it in my bones.”

According to media reports, U.S. forces on Friday carried out what Trump called “one of the most powerful bombing raids” on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export terminal in the Gulf, amid escalating tensions over the Strait of Hormuz.

The attack “totally obliterated” every military target on the island but did not hit oil infrastructure “for reasons of decency,” the president said, while still leaving that option on the table.

“Iran’s Military, and all others involved with this Terrorist Regime, would be wise to lay down their arms, and save what’s left of their country, which isn’t much!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Pat came the response to Trump’s tweet: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to retaliate Saturday with strikes on what it described as “legitimate targets” in cities in the United Arab Emirates, with senior government officials claiming the U.S. attack came from neighboring countries.

“We will definitely respond to these attacks,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, according to Iran International.

Kharg Island, located roughly 16 miles off the coast of Iran, has emerged as a proxy battleground in the struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait, a narrow channel carrying about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply daily, has been effectively closed to shipping traffic for weeks, as Iran ramps up attacks on vessels attempting to pass through.

In a message read on Iranian state television by a news anchor, Iran’s new supreme leader said the “lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely continue to be used” until U.S. and Israeli strikes cease, even as the supply disruption deepens and oil prices surge.

Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, again topped $100 per barrel on Saturday.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, is set to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to discuss the economic impact of the ongoing conflict, including rising gas prices.

The Trump administration has been considering escorting tanks through the strait, but Energy Secretary Chris Wright suggested that the U.S. Navy was not yet ready to do so. Experts say naval escorts are risky, time-consuming and can be expensive.

Trump said on Saturday that “many countries” would send warships to patrol the strait, renewing his call for the waterway to reopen as he faces mounting economic pressure back home.

“This should have always been a team effort, and now it will be – It will bring the World together toward Harmony, Security, and Everlasting Peace!” he wrote on Truth Social.

United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz, who has defended military intervention in Iran as “lawful” and “moral,” is set to appear on “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol Hill have so far been able to stave off attempts to rein in Trump’s ability to continue the operation without obtaining congressional approval, recently defeating a pair of War Powers resolutions in back-to-back votes.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, who will be on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday,” argued Republicans loyal to Trump are “overwhelmingly supportive” of the campaign amid online debate over the meaning of the “America First” policy.

Repeating his conviction that the war will end soon, Trump told Fox News Friday that he would order an end to the fighting “when I feel it. When I feel it in my bones.”

“The problem with the administration’s approach is that it has constantly shifted its goals. Some are achievable, such as degrading Iran’s conventional force. Others are not, such as picking the next leader of Iran,” said Ray Takeyh, a scholar on Iran at the Council on Foreign Relations.

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