President Trump: Iran Has 5 Days

President Donald Trump announced that Iran has five days to reopen the Strait of Hormuz before the U.S. military resumes targeting Iran’s power plants.

As reported by the New York Post:

President Trump announced Monday that the US will not attack any part of Iran’s power and energy infrastructure for five days after Washington and Tehran engaged in “very good and productive talks” over the weekend about ending the three-week-old war.

“I am please [sic] to report that the United States of America, and the country of Iran, have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.

“Based on the tenor and tone of these in-depth, detailed, and constructive conversations, witch [sic] will continue throughout the week, I have instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”

Iran quickly disputed Trump’s claims about talks, with the Foreign Ministry issuing a statement to state-run newspaper IRAN that read: “Remarks by the US president are part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans.

“While there have been initiatives by regional countries to de-escalate tensions, Iran’s response has been clear: It did not start the war and all such requests should be directed to Washington.”

“We have had very, very strong talks, we’ll see where they lead,” Trump insisted to reporters as he left South Florida for an event in Memphis, Tenn., Monday morning. “We have points of, major points of agreement, I would say — almost all points of agreement. Perhaps that hasn’t been conveyed, the communication [network in Iran], as you know, has been blown to pieces. They were unable to talk to each other, but we’ve had very strong talks.”

“They want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal too.” 

But let’s be clear – this is not a full ceasefire. Trump is showing no signs of backing down or ending military operations against the Iranian regime. This is merely a pause on one very specific pressure point.

Now, of course, many people are asking why pause now, given the momentum we’ve seen? In recent days, the U.S. and its allies have taken out high-level targets inside Iran. There have been reports of major disruptions to leadership structures. By most accounts, this operation has been tactically successful. Why ease off now when it feels like we’ve got the regime backed into a corner?

Why not push toward a fully free Iran? After all, we’ve seen the Iranian people rise up and take to the streets in protests, knowing it could very well mean their freedom, their well-being, and even their lives. We’ve seen extraordinary courage from civilians who clearly want something different for their country.

But there’s also a grim reality that often, when you completely dismantle a country’s infrastructure – power, energy, basic services, which attacking their grid would affect – you create instability. You create a failed state. And history has shown us that failed states lead to chaos. And they offer other bad actors, sometimes worse than those already in place, an opportunity to seize power. That’s a risk I’d imagine the Trump Administration would rather not take. Plus, it’s also possible that the President believes he’s created enough leverage to force Iran to come back to the negotiating table in a meaningful way without further strikes.

And at the end of the day, President Trump has never said this is about regime change. The stated objective has consistently been to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. It’s not our job, or even necessarily our place, to replace world leaders we don’t agree with. Even if, by many accounts, it would be the best-case scenario. But our goal with Iran is to stop them from obtaining weapons of mass destruction – period. And if the President can get them back to the table and negotiate a deal that ensures that end, isn’t it his obligation to try and make it happen?

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more analysis of President Trump’s announcement of a five-day pause and the response from Iran so far. We also discussed the ongoing DHS shutdown and how it’s impacting travel, not just here but around the globe, and President Trump’s potential solution of sending ICE to America’s airports.

Watch the full broadcast below: