Trump rules out negotiations with Iran and demands "unconditional surrender"

WashingtonDonald Trump appears ready to burn all bridges with Iran. Almost a week after the United States, along with Israel, launched attacks against the ayatollahs' regime, the US president asserted in a post on Truth Social that "there will be no deal with Iran short of unconditional surrender." The statement represents a dramatic shift in the administration's position since the bombing began. On Sunday, in an interview on The AtlanticThe Republican asserted that the Iranians "want to talk" and agreed to do so. "So we're going to talk," he added. In fact, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said that some countries had already begun mediating to stop the war. The White House seems intent on sabotaging all efforts to halt a war it still doesn't know how to explain to its citizens and which has already killed at least 1,332 people in Iran.

Washington is not only accumulating bodies, but also mounting a bill that, in the first 100 hours of the conflict, has ballooned to a staggering 1,000., rises to $3.7 billion. The advance also comes with rising oil prices and a reduction in the Pentagon's arsenal, which was already depleted after a year of supporting Israel. The president seems willing to embark on a protracted conflict and assures that the supply of ammunition "is virtually unlimited." But behind the scenes, there are already has asked Ukraine for help in dealing with Iranian drones He has called a meeting with major arms manufacturers to urge them to accelerate production. Producing a Shahed drone costs between $20,000 and $50,000, while anti-aircraft interceptors, such as the Patriot, or THAAD ammunition cost between one and two million dollars. and it requires at least one year to manufacture.

One of the military's fears is that the ayatollahs are sending swarms of drones to further deplete the U.S. military's already dwindling ammunition reserves. The Department of Defense operates on the principle of always maintaining sufficient inventory and troop levels. prepared to be able to deter or respond to any type of conflict with China. Russia has started to make its move From the comfort of the rear. The Kremlin is providing the Iranians with information about US targets in the region, according to sources familiar with the matter. Washington Post. Publicly, Moscow has been calling for an end to the war, which it has described as "an act of aggression without provocation." The assistance, even if in the form of intelligence, is yet another symptom of how quickly the conflict is spreading internationally. Moreover, in addition to Russia, another nuclear power has also joined the fray.

No narrative

Trump has consistently sent contradictory messages about Washington's position regarding this war. In the six days of conflict that have engulfed the region, the administration has constantly changed its story. The Republican justified the attack with an argument similar to the 2003 war against Iraq, but instead of mentioning weapons of mass destruction, he said there was a risk that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon. Later, he shifted to a more generic term, saying that "our objective is to defend Americans by eliminating any threat from the Iranian regime." In closed-door testimony before Congress, members of the administration said that the information they had did not suggest that the ayatollahs were preparing any kind of preemptive strike against US interests in the region.

Just as the type of threat Iran posed has become blurred, so too has Washington's supposed plan for the country. First, Trump said he wanted to topple the regime and called on Iranians to take to the streets. As the days have passed, the Republican has gone from wanting to annihilate him to wanting to control him. On Tuesday, Trump told the Oval Office that he would like to make a transition similar to the one applied in Venezuela: to decapitate the regime and turn the interim government into a kind of US protectorate. The tycoon has repeatedly stated that he wants to appoint Ali Khamenei's successor, and has even joked, saying: "The attack was so successful that we killed almost all the candidates. It won't be any of the people we had in mind, because they're all dead." Iran warned yesterday that the country will not be controlled by "Epstein's gang," referring to the American tycoon implicated in the sexual abuse of minors.

Meanwhile, the White House propaganda machine is working at full speed. The Trump administration's official website continues to share edited videos of the attacks, emphasizing the strength of its military. One of the latest clips mixes fragments of Hollywood films with actual footage of the attacks and attempts to mask the lack of discourse with empty epic narratives.

Rumors of troops on the ground

From the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has transformed press conferences intended to provide updates on the conflict into a kind of testosterone-fueled harangue about US power. "No absurd rules of engagement, no nation-building traps, no democratic-building exercises, no politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don't waste time or lives. As the president warned, an effort of this magnitude will involve casualties. War is hell and it always will be," he said Thursday in the Pentagon press room, thousands of miles from where the conflict is taking place and where sending troops is not ruled out. In fact, rumors about this possibility have been fueled by the abrupt cancellation of an exercise that an elite paratrooper unit had planned for these days. This is the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, which includes a combat brigade of approximately 5,000 soldiers prepared to deploy with only eighteen hours' notice for missions as diverse as seizing control of critical infrastructure or conducting evacuations.