Donald Trump Warns Iran As Regional Tensions Surge Across Gulf Nations | NewsX World

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]the broadcast today discussing some latest statements from US President Donald Trump. He has today said a sharp escalation in his rhetoric on the Iran conflict, describing Iran's latest position as extremely weak and claiming the country's leadership is under mounting pressure.

[00:00:16]Trump said there was no pressure on the US to back down and insisted that the United States had already achieved its military success in principle and would continue pursuing what he called a complete victory in the conflict.

[00:00:28]The US President also claimed Iran had initially agreed to allow the removal of its enriched uranium stockpile before reversing its stance during negotiations.

[00:00:37]Furthermore, he's gone on to accuse Iranian leaders of acting irrationally and reiterated that the US's objective remains preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

[00:00:47]He also described Iran's missile attacks on Gulf nations as a major strategic miscalculation, warning that the strikes had widened regional concerns by putting countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain in the line of fire.

[00:01:03]Let's listen to the comments made by US President Donald Trump.

[00:01:09]Yeah, it's it unbelievably weak. I would say I would call it the weakest right now.

[00:01:17]After reading that piece of garbage they sent us, I didn't even finish reading it. I said I'm not going to waste my time reading it.

[00:01:23]I would say it's one of the weakest right now. It's on life support. Do you understand? These are all medical people.

[00:01:30]A doctor knows life support is not a good thing, do you agree? I am prognostic. [laughter] I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support. They think that well, I'll get tired of this, I'll get bored or I'll have some pressure, but there's no pressure. There's no pressure at all. We're going to have a complete victory. We've already in theory had a complete victory from the military.

[00:01:51]We're joined now for this discussion by two guests. Firstly, Robert Fantina, a journalist and author in Canada. And secondly, Major General Dr. Rajan Kotcher, a senior strategic and international affairs expert, joining us from New Delhi. I want to first go to you, Robert. Uh is this rejection from Trump to the latest Iranian proposal surprising? Is it expected? Um of course there has been slow progress on negotiations so far, but it seems that uh with Trump rejecting this latest round of uh proposals from Iran, that perhaps progress may be stymied. Um what's your reaction to his press conference?

[00:02:36]Of course it is a very inconsistent and chaotic. He rejected this, he said, without even reading the whole thing, which is typical of him. He doesn't read policy papers uh that his his cabinet members and assistants give him. So he's certainly going to read a uh proposal from another nation that he has bombed illegally. So, this is not a surprise. This does set negotiations back, but it it was to be anticipated.

[00:03:03]The things that he has said that are irrational or that are uh are are unreasonable for him are things that Iran has proposed that are very reasonable, very rational, and that and the country would propose in that situation. So, while this does set back the negotiations, we'll have to wait and see if Trump does decide to uh resume bombing. I don't think he's going to anytime soon, but again with Donald Trump, we never know.

[00:03:30]Mhm.

[00:03:31]I want to bring in now Dr. Kotcher into this conversation. Dr. Kotcher, thanks very much for joining us to discuss these latest developments um in the war in Iran.

[00:03:41]Now, uh US President uh has claimed that Iran initially agreed to allow the removal of its enriched uranium stockpile, and then reversed their stance and he's accused the Iranian leaders of acting irrationally. Um in your analysis of the conflict so far, are the Iranian leaders acting irrationally? So far, they still uh have de facto control over the Strait of Hormuz despite uh far um far superior firepower from the United States. Uh what's your analysis of these comments coming from Trump from this press conference?

[00:04:22]Uh thanks, Ruby. I tend to go with the Robert's assessment because his statements are uh very uh inconsistent because every day we hear different set of statements. So, it doesn't uh actually give you a great deal of confidence when you hear uh Donald Trump taking all these statements because uh uh what he's saying actually on ground is not happening. And uh there's a lack of credibility as far as Trump's statement is concerned. With regard to Israel, I think uh Israel uh with regard to Iran, uh the connection, uh you Iran is following a very uh matured uh diplomacy.

[00:05:10]Because the kind of statements which we we which we hear uh you emanating from Iran suggest to us that Iran is following a very, very consistent line which is contrary to what we uh hear from Donald Trump. And uh uh Iran has always maintained uh firstly this blockade must go.

[00:05:40]Uh secondly, the sanctions must ease out because you need to understand that uh uh you may say that Iran has not won the war, but Iran has not lost the war, either.

[00:05:52]So, uh I you Iran wants to resurrect its economic situation there, which is in a bad shape. Absolutely no doubt about it.

[00:06:01]And therefore, it wants to ease out some of the sanctions, defreezing of accounts, and things like that. And also, this blockade of Strait of Hormuz is linked to that because it's a leverage as far as Iran is concerned because that seems to be the center of gravity of the discussion now because earlier it was not part of the discussion at all. So, now everything is focusing on Strait of Hormuz, naval blockade, and uh the uh stockpile, the enrichment uh of the uranium you you aspects and all. So, I think these talks are not going to head anywhere as of now. Though I believe Qatar is also now uh willing to join in to the talks. So, let us see in the in the next 2 to 3 days, I would say around 72 hours from now, we wish to see some definite move forward in case Qatar comes into the negotiations. And uh definitely, this visit of Donald Trump to China, where he meets Xi there, is going to have an impact uh on the resolution of this future conflict. Indeed.

[00:07:19]Um, I want to come back to you, Robert.

[00:07:22]Of course, Dr. Kochan there mentioned some possible involvement by Qatar, one of the Gulf states. Um, in Trump's uh press conference, he has said that the Iranian missile attacks on the Gulf nations were a major strategic miscalculation that had widened the regional concerns.

[00:07:41]Um, and it during in the in the Gulf uh countries area, uh of course, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Bahrain. Now, Robert, in your analysis, do you think, um, that it was a strategic miscalculation by Iran to attack these Gulf states? Of course, they were home to many US military bases, but these Gulf states have now started to make, uh, inroads and alliances with other nations, including Ukraine. Of course, President Zelenskyy was there very recently.

[00:08:15]Do you think after this war will be concluded that these Gulf states may reevaluate their alliance with the United States and look for different partners, or has it brought them closer together, if anything?

[00:08:28]No, I don't think it it has brought them closer together. I don't think this was by any means a miscalculation by the Iranian government. The miscalculation was by the US government when it, uh, attacked Iran and triggered these reactions. Now, Donald Trump, of course, says it was a miscalculation because at least 16 US military bases throughout out the Middle East in the countries you've mentioned have been, uh, rendered completely inoperable. The soldiers that were, uh, stationed there or have gone to hotels because the the the equipment, the, uh, the Air Force, whatever was in those bases has been destroyed. Of course, Donald Trump doesn't doesn't like to see that. These Middle Eastern countries that that house those bases are going to start having second thoughts about the advantages of having them there, if there are any. Uh, there were probably some financial advantages they got from the United States in exchange for housing the bases there, but military bases generally are not popular among the populace, the people who who live in the areas. So, it's very likely that these Middle Eastern countries have seen, uh, again, and very very up, how erratic and irrational the US government is, and they will want to to make alliances, military, trade alliances, economic alliances with countries that are more reasonable, that are more stable, and that have a proven track record of honoring agreements that they've made with other countries. The United States does not have such a track record.

[00:09:58]Mhm.

[00:09:59]Uh back to you, Dr. Cotcha. Um of course, in some of uh Trump's statements, he also said that uh Iran had initially agreed to allow the removal of its enriched uranium and then reversed his stance. Um do you think this could be the case? Would Iran really be willing to give up uh its stockpile in these negotiations?

[00:10:21]And if it is indeed true that they did reverse this stance, what does this tell us about the current status of negotiations?

[00:10:30]Well, you see, in my uh considered analysis, I don't think uh Iran is going to give up its uh right over its uh enrichment of uh uranium because uh uh from the very beginning, if you would have seen uh Iran has maintained this uh posture. And uh when uh there was a talk that Russia had offered uh custody of this uh uh uh 450 kg of uh uranium into uh uh Russian uh uh custody. So, I don't think that is also happening because America has turned down that proposal. In any case, Iran is not right now in a position to even send it to Russia. So, I think uh uh there is going to be a middle path because I uh feel that uh Iran will not be able to maintain this kind of a stand because in case you uh you want to bring an end to the war, you uh uh have to actually work on a compromise formula. So, I think there may be a period between 5 to 10 years uh where uh Iran may agree to stopping its enrichment process and not going further on its nuclear program. Earlier, I was given to understand Iran was agreeable to 5-year term, but I think United States insists on 10 years. So, I think maybe uh somewhere between 5 to 10 years, as I was uh discussing with some of the Iranian journalists, they were of the opinion that uh a kind of consensus may be arrived between a period of 5 to 10 years.

[00:12:19]Uh somewhere in between. So, I think uh that should be a kind of a acceptable solution to both the countries in case they want to uh proceed ahead with the talks. Mhm. Dr. Kochan, thank you so much for joining us for this analysis. Always a pleasure to chat to you. And Robert, please don't go far. We'll