US threats against Iran and ongoing Israeli attacks in Lebanon cast doubt on fragile ceasefire efforts.
By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and AP
Published On 9 Apr 2026
United States President Donald Trump has warned that US forces will remain deployed around Iran and threatened overwhelming military action if Tehran fails to meet Washingtonโs demands, casting doubt over a fragile ceasefire.
Writing on social media late on Wednesday, Trump said US troops, aircraft and naval forces would stay in position until what he described as the โREAL AGREEMENTโ is fully implemented.
โAll US ships, aircraft, and military personnel โฆ will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with,โ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
โIf for any reason it is not โฆ the โShootinโ Starts,โฒ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.โ
The remarks came just a day after a two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran, brokered by Pakistan, paused six weeks of fighting and briefly calmed global markets worried about disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Yet Trumpโs language underscored how quickly the truce could unravel. He reiterated US demands that Iran abandon any nuclear weapons ambitions and ensure safe passage through the vital shipping lane, while boasting that US forces were โLoading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquestโ.
Meanwhile, in Iran on Thursday, the semiofficial ISNA and Tasnim news agencies published a chart suggesting the countryโs paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had put sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz during the war.
The chart showed a large circle marked โdanger zoneโ in Farsi over the Traffic Separation Scheme, which was the route ships take through the strait. The chart suggested ships travel further north through waters closer to Iranโs mainland near Larak Island, a route that some ships were observed taking during the war. It was dated from February 28 until April 9, and it was unclear if the IRGC had cleared any mining on the route since then.
Tags: Iran, Israel, Middle East, news, politics
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