Iran-US war latest: Iran’s president hits out at ‘unprovoked military aggression’ hours before Trump’s address – The Independent

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Trump said the US would be ‘blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages’ if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened
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Iran’s president has hit out at “unprovoked military aggression” hours before Donald Trump is set to address the nation.
In a letter addressed to the ⁠American ​peopleIranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that his country ⁠harbors no ​enmity ⁠towards ordinary ‌Americans.
He added that portraying Iran as a threat was “neither consistent with ‌historical reality ​nor ‌with ⁠present-day observable facts”.
It comes after Pezeshkian denied Trump’s claims that the “new regime president” requested a ceasefire.
He claimed that the new leader, who was “much less radicalized” than his predecessor, had requested that both sides end hostilities to strike a peace agreement.
Trump added that the US would be “blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages” if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened.
Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Trump’s statements were false and baseless, Iranian state TV reports.
The aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush is slated to go to the Middle East, along with three destroyers, officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors. Thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving, according to other US officials.
Donald Trump is expected to use his primetime address to the nation to announce that the war in Iran, which has now lasted over a month, is winding down.
Sources told Politico that the speech, airing at 9 p.m. ET, will claim that all of America’s military objectives have been met, despite White House officials consistently being cagey over specifics.
Trump also intends to double down on his criticism of NATO allies and blame them for the ongoing issues in the Strait of Hormuz – which is still marred by shipping restrictions imposed by Iran.
In a speech at an Easter Lunch at the White House president Donald Trump hit out at NATO claiming he “didn’t need them”.
“We’ve got some very bad allies in NATO. We blasted the hell out of Iran, the last thing I needed was NATO stepping in our way,” he said.
The president also hinted at tonights Oval Office address, claiming he will be speaking out how “great” he is.
He said: “Tonight I’m making a little speech at 9 o’clock. And basically I’m gonna uhh tell everybody how great I am. Whatta phenomenal job I’ve done.”
President Trump says he has achieved one of his primary goals of the war – to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, although it isn’t clear how.
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium that could potentially be used to build nuclear weapons is believed to be buried under the rubble of a mountain facility that was hit during strikes last June — and that hasn’t changed since the war with Iran began this year.
Mr Trump has said the US would move to take the uranium if it reached a deal with Iran.
But he said on Wednesday that the uranium is “so far underground, I don’t care about that”.
“We’ll always be watching it by satellite,” he said.
He said Iran was now incapable of developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s president has hit out at “unprovoked military aggression” in a letter addressed to the ⁠American ​people.
Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said that his country ⁠harbours no ​enmity ⁠towards ordinary ‌Americans.
He added that portraying Iran as a threat was “neither consistent with ‌historical reality ​nor ‌with ⁠present-day observable facts”.
Just a third of the US public approves of President Donald Trump’s handling of the situation in Iran, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS has revealed.
While only 33 per cent of the public thought he had a clear plan to handle the situation in Iran, 36 per cent approve of his foreign policy.
Plus about six in 10 say he has gone too far in trying to expand America’s power over other countries.
Disapproval of military action in Iran has grown since the start of the war, with just 34 per cent of Americans saying they approve at least somewhat of the US decision to take military action in Iran, down seven points from a CNN poll conducted just after the start of the war.
President Donald Trump is set to declare that the war in Iran is winding down in an Oval Office address tonight.
He also intends to scapegoat NATO allies for Iran’s ongoing restrictions of shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, Politico reported.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist, said the president will lay out what he has achieved in Iran and what he want’s to do before he leaves.
“Two, three weeks, definable objectives. ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’ — and we are hanging around a couple of weeks to conquer some more — maybe even then a ceasefire, while reiterating that the Hormuz situation is the Gulf Emirates’ and the Europeans’ to solve, and declare victory,” He said.
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