Trump threatens to bomb Iran at much higher level if peace deal is not reached

WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that if Tehran does not agree to a peace deal with Washington, U.S. forces will resume bombing “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before.”

“Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social account.

“If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before,” he added.

On Tuesday at a White House news briefing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the military operation Epic Fury was already over.

“The operation is over. Epic Fury, as the president notified Congress, we’re done with that stage of it,” Rubio told reporters.

Also on Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. military will pause its effort to guide vessels through the Strait of Hormuz for now while maintaining its blockade of Iranian ports, given “great progress had been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran.”

The United States and Iran are closing in on a one-page memo to end their war, U.S. online media outlet Axios reported on Wednesday.

A potential deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment and the United States agreeing to lift sanctions, with both sides lifting restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz, it said.

The New York Post reported on Wednesday that Trump said it is “too soon” to start thinking about face-to-face peace talks between the United States and Iran, despite optimistic reports that the two nations were closing in on a potential framework to end their war.