Trump Lies to Save Market, Iran Denies, Deepening Rift

BlockBeats News, March 24: President Trump of the United States stated that the U.S. and Iran had very good and productive discussions over the past two days, agreeing to suspend any military strikes against Iran's power plant and energy infrastructure for five days. He mentioned that Iran expressed a desire to end the war and both sides are negotiating whether to reach a broader agreement, with discussions starting last Saturday. Trump said "they are serious this time" and expressed hope to "get it done." An Israeli official and two sources familiar with the matter said that Iran's dialogue representative is Iran's powerful Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. According to Israeli media, Washington has set April 9 as the target date to end the war, which is about 21 days away.

However, Iran denied any "talks" with Trump. Iranian Speaker Ghalibaf called Trump's statement "fake news" and mentioned that military actions are still escalating. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stated that they are launching a new round of attacks on U.S. targets and described Trump's remarks as "psychological warfare," stating that it "has long been ineffective" and has no impact on the battle in Tehran. According to CCTV News, a senior Iranian official stated that U.S. President Trump has no authority to set conditions or deadlines for negotiations. The official mentioned that Iran and the U.S. have exchanged messages through Egypt and Turkey to ease the tension, but the U.S. has not accepted Iran's two core conditions, which are compensating for losses and acknowledging the violations against Iran.

Furthermore, in terms of military dynamics, according to The New York Times, senior U.S. Department of Defense officials are considering deploying about 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division's rapid response brigade, which can reach the target area within 18 hours. One option is to seize Iran's main oil export hub, Kharg Island. Meanwhile, sources in the Iranian military mentioned that they have prepared a new "surprise operation" for the coming days, which will have a "significant effect," and claimed that "all military options of Trump have failed."

On the economic front, Goldman Sachs raised the probability of the U.S. economy entering a recession in the next 12 months to 30% on Monday, a 5-percentage-point increase from before. The reason is that the continued blockage of the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up energy prices, leading to tighter financial conditions. The bank also predicted that this conflict would reduce global GDP growth by 0.4 percentage points.