Iran made renewed threats and temporarily closed the Strait of Hormuz, as the U.S. and Iranian officials on Tuesday concluded another round of inconclusive nuclear talks.
Iran’s dictator, Ali Khamenei, threatened to ‘send’ American aircraft carriers to the ‘bottom of the sea’ while the diplomatic negotiations were underway in Geneva, Switzerland. Iran’s top Mullah mocked President Donald Trump and spoke disparagingly about the U.S. military might.
“The US President keeps saying that they have the strongest military force in the world. The strongest military force in the world may at times be struck so hard that it cannot get up again,” Iran’s genocidal tyrant boasted in a speech, while his supporters chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in the background.
The Iranian military, on Tuesday, blockaded the Strait of Hormuz for several hours, as it conducted war games in one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. Iran’s Islamic Guard (IRGC) fired missiles into the 90-mile waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.
“Iran announced the temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday for live fire military drills in a rare show of force as its negotiators held another round of indirect talks with the United States in Geneva over its disputed nuclear program,” The Associated Press reported.
“It was the first time Iran has announced the closure of the key international waterway,” the news agency noted. According to The New York Times, “A quarter of the world’s oil and 20 percent of the world’s liquefied natural gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz.”
While Washington did not comment on the outcome of the talks on Tuesday, Terhan appears to be pleased with the ongoing negotiations. The NBC News reports:
The United States and Iran have reached an understanding on the “guiding principles” in nuclear talks, Tehran’s foreign minister said Tuesday, though he cautioned that work still needs to be done to reach an agreement and head off the threat of an American military attack.“I believe we made good progress,” said Abbas Araghchi, the head of the Iranian delegation in Geneva. “The path toward an agreement has started but we will not reach it quickly,” he told state media after hours of indirect talks, adding that the two sides would separately work on draft texts before a new round of negotiations.There was no immediate public reaction to the talks from Washington; the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Tehran wants the Trump administration to lift sanctions in exchange for vague promises to restrict its nuclear program. “Iran is ready to consider compromises to reach a nuclear deal with the US if the Americans are willing to discuss lifting sanctions,” the BBC reported Sunday, quoting an Iranian minister.
The Khamenei regime has amassed a huge stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium and has been developing ballistic missiles capable of hitting major European cities. The BBC observed that the regime had a “stockpile of more than 400 kilos of highly enriched uranium.”
Tehran wants the current round of talks to go the way the Obama-Kerry nuclear deal went. The 2015 deal sought to give Iran, the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, access to $100 billion to $150 billion in frozen assets.
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