Trump says US forces to stay near Iran, ready for ‘next conquest’

US threats against Iran and ongoing Israeli attacks in Lebanon cast doubt on fragile ceasefire efforts.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 Washington’s 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 “REAL AGREEMENT” is fully implemented.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Trump slams NATO over Iran after meeting Rutte, renews Greenland threatlist 2 of 3For Gulf states, Hormuz uncertainty casts shadow over US-Iran ceasefirelist 3 of 3Iran war day 41: What’s happening in Lebanon, Middle East and beyond?end of list“All US ships, aircraft, and military personnel … will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“If for any reason it is not … the ‘Shootin’ Starts,′ bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before.”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 Trump’s 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 “Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest”.Meanwhile, in Iran on Thursday, the semiofficial ISNA and Tasnim news agencies published a chart suggesting the country’s 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 “danger zone” 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 Iran’s 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.‘A ceasefire has no meaning at all’On the ground in Iran, scepticism runs deep.