"Iran suspects Trump is plotting new escalation"...End-of-war negotiations in a fog

U.S. President Donald Trump

Iran suspects that U.S. President Donald Trump is plotting a new escalation using negotiations as a bait, reported the British daily Telegraph on the 19th (local time), citing Qatari satellite broadcaster Al Jazeera.

According to the newspaper, an Iranian source told Al Jazeera, "There is a discrepancy between Trump's remarks about holding negotiations and what is actually happening between Iran and the U.S.," adding, "We believe the enemy is employing deception and is about to initiate a new phase of escalation."

As U.S. military reinforcements continue to be deployed to the Middle East, and President Trump convened a sensitive security meeting in the White House Situation Room today, Iran's suspicions appear to be deepening.

Mediating countries, including Pakistan, hope to resume the ceasefire negotiations that broke down in Islamabad on the 11th, at the same location on the 20th.

The U.S. stated that it has sent its negotiation delegation, but Iran has not disclosed whether negotiations will resume.

U.S. Vice President Vance (left) and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian Parliament

Iran's state-run Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that it launched drone attacks on some U.S. warships in response to the U.S. military's attack on the Iranian-flagged container ship Tuska in the Gulf of Oman.

This announcement came shortly after a spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Military Headquarters, which commands integrated operations of the entire Iranian military including the IRGC and regular forces, announced through state media that the U.S. attack on the Tuska was a violation of the ceasefire agreement and an act of maritime piracy, and that immediate retaliatory measures would be taken.

Previously, on the 18th, Reza Talaei, spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Defense, emphasized that the war with the U.S. was not over and that Iran would respond to "diplomatic deception."