Even Trump’s most basic claims about the Iran war can’t be trusted
President Donald Trump on Monday morning he told the New York Post Vice President J.D. Vance was already on his way to Pakistan for negotiations with Iran. “They’re heading there now,” Trump said, according to the Post. “They will be there tonight. [Islamabad] time.”
But this wasn’t true. A little later Monday morning, people familiar with Vance’s plans he told CNN’s Alayna Treene He said the vice president is expected to travel to Pakistan on Tuesday for talks that will begin on Wednesday. Vance’s motorcade would arrive soon Seen at the White House.
Trump’s false remarks can be dismissed as the kind of minor thing that a busy president could understandably misunderstand. But this is part of a pattern that has accelerated in the past week; This president is wrong about even the most basic issues regarding the Iran war.
“One of the big differences between the current round of U.S.-Iran diplomacy and previous rounds is that this administration, and the President in particular, are unreliable narrators,” said Eric Brewer, a former National Security Council nonproliferation official. sent on social media on Friday. “Iran watchers have gotten pretty good at analyzing statements from both sides over the years, but we have never had to debate a U.S. president who is so outspoken and prone to exaggeration, fabrication and outright lies.”
Trump’s claim Monday about Vance’s trip was just the latest in a series of inaccurate, questionable or unsubstantiated comments about the war. Many were more important.
After Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday declared Trump says Strait of Hormuz will be “fully open” to commercial ships during ongoing ceasefire sent “The Strait of Hormuz issue is over” and this “Iran agreed never to close the Strait of Hormuz again.”
But it is clear that the situation is not over yet: Trump himself sent The same morning that the USA will continue its blockade of ships going to or from Iranian ports; Araghchi had said that opening the strait was only for one purpose. a specific Iranian-approved road near the coastline Instead of the lanes that ships generally used before; and an Iranian official sent Later in the day, the ships had to receive approval from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy and pay passage fees.
As for Iran’s so-called agreement to never close the strait again? Iranian announced The very next day the throat was closed again.
False claim upon false claim from Trump
Trump on Thursday requested to reporters: “The Pope made a statement. He says Iran may have nuclear weapons.” Pope Leo XIV, a staunch opponent of nuclear weapons, he didn’t say that. At Fox Business report In his report published Wednesday, Trump claimed that Persian Gulf countries were “not expected to be hit” by Iran. In fact, Iran has retaliatory attacks on these countries. It was widely expected. In an interview with Fox News last Sunday, Trump said: requested Iran: “Their army is gone, everything is gone.” But it is clear that Iran still has an army. destructive abilitiesEven though the USA and Israel humiliated them.
Trump’s claim about Vance on Monday was at least his second piece of misinformation about his own vice president in two days. Trump on Sunday MS said NOW He said Vance would not be part of the Pakistani delegation for security reasons. But after the president said this, “two senior US officials told MS NOW that Vance would, in fact, lead the delegation to Islamabad,” he said.
It’s possible that the administration’s plans may have changed after Trump spoke. But here too, even the president’s words regarding this simple question cannot be accepted as truth.
The claim, made by Trump at a press conference on April 6, was emblematic of how shockingly disconnected from reality many of his claims about the war are. HE in question“They actually say the only plane we lost was friendly fire.” He said this at an event where he spoke at length about what happened after Iran shot down a US warplane.
How many of Trump’s triumphant claims about the talks were true? we don’t know yet
Trump’s a Years of history from lying about something quite diverse range of topics. Whether he was deliberately deceiving the public about the Iran war or was repeatedly uninformed or misinformed about it, the frequency of his lies made it impossible to trust his statements about what Iran was allegedly saying behind the scenes.
In phone calls with reporters last week, Trump made a series of triumphant declarations about the major concessions Iran has allegedly made. These included an “unlimited” moratorium on nuclear activities (each Bloomberg), ending its support for all proxy groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah (per head) CBS News) and the United States are both mining Iran’s enriched uranium (also according to CBS News).
After CBS News correspondent Weijia Jiang asked Trump if Iran had agreed to permanently stop enriching uranium, Trump asked: replied: “They agreed to everything.”
Experts have expressed strong skepticism that Iran is doing what Trump claims. And Iranian officials soon announced that they did not accept everything Trump said; The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson made a statement saying“Enriched uranium is as sacred to us as Iranian soil and will not be transferred anywhere under any circumstances.”
“The President of the United States made seven claims in one hour, all seven of which were false,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iranian parliament speaker and chief negotiator. sent Friday.
Of course, Iran’s words cannot be trusted. Its leadership lied repeatedly about the war and many other issues. And rival power centers Some changes within his government often make it difficult to figure out which officials’ comments have the most authority.
Therefore, if a US-Iran agreement is eventually reached, it is possible that some of Trump’s claims will be proven true. But Trump’s track record means that until we see that evidence, we can’t accept, or even assume, that the US president’s claims about the negotiations are any more accurate than those of Iranian leaders.
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