President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he does not know if Iran is going to “give up yet” but cast the country as doing “very poorly” in its war with the US.
DETAILS AND QUOTES:
* “I don’t know if they are going to give up yet but they’ll give up,” Trump told reporters.
* “They are doing very poorly,” he added.
* A US blockade has cut Iran’s financial lifeline – oil exports, and economic costs of the war have made life tougher for Iranians.
* Iran’s president told the UN General Assembly last week that Tehran would never surrender to US pressure.
* The rise in oil prices due to the war has also become a major issue for Trump’s Republican Party heading into the November US midterm elections.
* The war has led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which carried a fifth of global supplies of crude oil and LNG before the conflict.
* Trump has offered shifting goals and timelines for the Iran war that began on February 28 when the US and Israel attacked Iran and Tehran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases.
* US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Steve Holland in Washington; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and David Gregorio)