Rezáí first spoke about negotiations between the two countries. He said that any agreement depends on whether the Trump administration agrees to release 24 billion dollars (over half a trillion crowns) in frozen Iranian assets.
“Negotiations are deadlocked and Trump must resolve this impasse. The ball is in Trump’s court,” CNN quoted Khamenei’s adviser as saying that Tehran is demanding the release of 12 billion immediately after the interim agreement is signed and the rest at a “later stage.”
“If Trump wants to reach an agreement with Iran, this $24 billion is a test of the confidence that Iran wants to have in Trump – it’s a test that America has to pass and the way will open,” he said. “It’s our own money, not America’s money,” he added.
However, American officials fear that by releasing funds at this stage, Washington would lose key leverage in negotiations with the theocratic regime.
The adviser subsequently warned against a return to war, saying that if the US renews the conflict, Iran will “expand the war” beyond the Persian Gulf. According to him, Tehran could attack in the Indian Ocean, the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
“We will add another dimension to the war by attacking these other American bases that we have attacked so far,” he said. In a second breath, however, he said that “the probability of war is low”.
Currently, Iran is conducting an operation in the Strait of Hormuz, which it almost completely blocks. Hundreds of ships used to sail through this strait every day, today it is units. Before the American-Israeli attacks at the end of February, a fifth of the world’s consumption of oil and liquefied natural gas passed through this strait.
Since April 8, there has been a fragile truce between the US and Iran, which both sides are violating. Currently, it is a memorandum of understanding in which, among other things, issues of the Iranian nuclear program are to be addressed. It is through its development and possible construction of nuclear weapons that the USA and Israel justify the war.
