Post #5618

🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 Trump ordered the blockade following the US-Iran talks in Islamabad that ended after 21 hours without an agreement. The tactic is aimed at strangling Iran's heavily oil-dependent economy and forcing Tehran to respond to US demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ships from the ports of the Gulf allies and accept a complete ban on uranium enrichment. Miad Maleki, a former US Treasury official now at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said on Twitter that the US naval blockade would cost Iran about $276 million per day in lost exports and disrupt $159 million per day in imports – representing a combined economic damage of $13 billion per month. Mohammad Ghalibaf, speaker of the Iranian parliament who also headed his country's delegation in Islamabad, told the Americans on Sunday in an article on X to “take advantage of the current figures at the pump", taunting Washington with a historical political sensitivity of the United States on gasoline prices. “With the so-called 'blockade', you will soon have nostalgia for gasoline at 4 or 5 dollars,” Ghalibaf added. The current average price of gasoline in the United States is $4.13 per gallon, compared to $2.98 before the United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on February 28. He conceded Sunday that gasoline prices could be the same as today or higher when the nation votes in the congressional elections, telling Fox News that they could go “a little higher.” Trump had reacted angrily to the criticism of the American-born pope over the administration's use of religious language to justify its war in Iran. He called him “weak on crime“ and ”terrible for foreign policy," and published an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ figure caring for the sick, an image widely condemned as blasphemous. On Monday, Trump claimed that the image (dressed in loose red and white dresses and the light emanating from his hands) was intended to present him as “a doctor". Iranian President Pezeshkian spoke out on Monday against what he called the "desecration of Jesus". “I condemn the insult to Your Excellency in the name of the great Iranian nation and declare that the desecration of Jesus, the prophet of peace and brotherhood, is not acceptable to any free person.” The Pope told reporters on Monday that he had “no intention of debating” with Trump on Iran and added that he would “continue to speak out loudly against war, seeking to promote peace, to promote dialogue and multilateral relations between states to seek just solutions to problems”. The US-Israeli bombing of Iran has ceased under a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, which began on Wednesday. Trump said that US forces remain "locked and loaded" and ready to ”finish off what little is left of Iran". Trump's claims that other countries would help enforce the US blockade, none came forward. Starmer was adamant that his country did not support the blockade and that “we will not allow ourselves to be dragged into the war”. Macron, meanwhile, said Paris would hold a conference with the UK and other countries to create a multinational mission to restore navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, but made it clear that this would come after the conflict. #trump#blockade#iran#hormuz#detroit 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸