President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that the ceasefire with Iran is over as advisers and allies close to the president identified the redlines that could trigger a new level of U.S. military action.
Speaking to reporters at the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump called Iranian leaders “scum” and “sick people” before ordering additional U.S. strikes against Tehran’s capabilities to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
An adviser to the president told the Washington Examiner that Trump believes Iran has shown it is “clearly disinterested in serious negotiations,” making continued diplomacy increasingly untenable.
“As far as escalating to a new level of fighting, I think there’s two or three things that could trigger that: Iran attempting to relaunch their nuclear weapons program, disrupting commerce through Hormuz, or killing American soldiers,” the adviser said, adding that if Tehran crossed those lines, “they’ll answer to the full might of the American military.”
That assessment was echoed by a Republican close to the White House, who told the Washington Examiner that “the president and his team are only monitoring Iran’s actions” and identified the primary concerns as “the nuclear dust material and the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump himself suggested as much during the summit, admitting the United States is watching Iran’s former nuclear sites, including those hit during last summer’s “Operation Midnight Hammer,” via Space Force’s satellite network.
“We have cameras that can read the badge of the person going over to a site. ‘Mohammed something.’ We say it’s ‘Mohammed something’ is there with shovels. Well, shovels won’t get you there,” he told reporters. “It’s way, way below, but we were watching that, and if anybody goes there, they get blown up, so nobody’s going to touch that.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump argued the U.S. had effectively secured Iran’s enriched uranium because the material remained buried deep underground.
“It’s so far underground, nobody’s going to be able to get it except us because we have the equipment that can get it,” the president said.
The comments offer one of the clearest public indications yet of how the administration views the next phase of the conflict. Rather than signaling an imminent ground operation to recover the uranium, Trump suggested the U.S. is relying on surveillance capabilities to ensure Iran cannot extract the material without being detected.
Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, additionally told the Washington Examiner that “the United States is confident enough right now that they would be able to detect whether the Iranian regime is trying to extract and recover that stockpile of highly enriched uranium.”
“The Iranians know the U.S. has the ability and may be able to detect whether they are trying to extract that stockpile,” he explained. “The regime is trying to use the Strait of Hormuz essentially as a shield to prevent any kind of concessions that it would make on the nuclear issue.”