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While the headlines scream about a pause, the pressure on Iran hasn’t let up for a second. According to a statement from U.S. Central Command on Monday, President Trump may have hit the brakes on strikes against Tehran’s power plants and energy infrastructure for five days, but everything else is still fair game. With footage released by CENTCOM showing a facility going up in flames, American forces continue to aggressively strike Iranian military targets with precision munitions, sending an unmistakable message to the crumbling regime in Tehran.
The president’s decision to pause energy strikes came after what he described in a White House briefing as very good and productive conversations with Iranian representatives, and that’s led to the markets breathing easier with the Dow Jones rebounding over 630 points, as reported by the New York Stock Exchange data. Trump is playing a high-stakes game here, balancing the hammer of military force against the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough by week’s end. But here’s what the regime-friendly media won’t tell you: while they’re busy denying talks even happened, American bombs are still falling on their military installations, based on CENTCOM’s ongoing operation updates.
Iran’s Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bager Galibaf called the negotiations fake news in a speech broadcast on Iranian state television, claiming no talks took place and accusing the U.S. of manipulating oil markets. Funny how the regime only cares about market manipulation when it doesn’t benefit them, isn’t it? The same Foreign Ministry that spent decades lying about its nuclear program, as documented in International Atomic Energy Agency reports, now wants us to believe they’re the victims of American deception. Trump, for his part, refused to name the Iranian official he spoke with during a press conference, citing fears they’d be killed — a telling admission about the nature of the regime we’re dealing with.
The president made his bottom line clear in his public statements: America wants the nuclear dust settled. After Operation Epic Fury began on February 28th , the administration has systematically degraded Iran’s military capabilities while keeping the door open for a deal. If the talks succeed, we end this conflict; if they fail, as Trump put it in his briefing, we just keep bombing our little hearts out. That’s the art of the deal, backed by the biggest stick in the world.
Providence watches over the bold.
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