While tensions between Israel and Iran enter their second week, Donald Trump multiplies thunderous statements. Tuesday evening, from the gardens of the White House, the American president swept away the offer of Russian mediation in the current conflict.
“I said to him: Make me a favor-starts by taking care of your own things. Let us first settle the problems of Russia, okay? Vladimir, let’s take care of Russia first, you will care about the rest later. “, He launched in response to the initiative of Vladimir Putin, who had proposed earlier in the day to help defuse military climbing between Tehran and Tel Aviv.
“I Said Do Me a Favor – Mediate Your Own. Let’s Mediate Russia First, Ok? I Said, ‘Vladimir, Let’s Mediate Russia First, You Can World about this Later'”.
This rejection, formulated with icy irony, speaks volumes about the current posture of Washington: no place for external mediation, especially from a Kremlin that Trump is now looking to marginalize on the international scene.
Implicit nuclear threat
In the same intervention, Trump has raised the tone against Iran, claiming without evidence that “the country has no air defense”, even calling it “completely defenseless”. He then spoke of a hypothetical “unconditional rendering” of Tehran.
“Then we will explode everything that is nuclear there,” he said, in reference to the atomic sites of the Islamic Republic. A threat barely veiled in preventive strikes, which many analysts interpret as a return to the doctrine of “extreme deterrence” dear to the hawk of Washington.
Negotiations… too late?
Trump also said he had been approached by Iranian officials to start a dialogue. He would have replied that “he was very late to speak”. While being careful not to clearly announce a military intervention, he sowed doubt: “I may do so, maybe not. No one knows. »An assumed strategic ambiguity, which aims as much to destabilize the adversary as to keeping hands on the diplomatic tempo.
A “very important” week
Despite these threats, Trump did not exclude the possibility of a quick outcome: “Next week will be very important, perhaps even before. “He recognized, however, that” nothing has yet been won “and that” war is complicated, many things can go wrong “.
These remarks arrive as the United States has continued its defensive support in Israel since the start of clashes with Iran. But by using “us” to talk about possible strikes, Trump continues to blur the line between indirect aid and entry into open war.
Between threat and confusion
Through this mixture of bravades, false diplomatic openings and strategic inaccuracies, Donald Trump has dangerous ambiguity. On the one hand, it blows the possibility of appeasement; On the other hand, it stirs up the embers with a regional conflagration. This confused posture, marked by a contempt displayed for the multilateral diplomatic order and international institutions, makes the worst fear.
While the missiles continue to fall to the Middle East, the world holds its breath. And the next hours may well be decisive.
