Trump’s statement about “destroying Iranian civilization” was blackmail: Alexander Asafov

Political analyst Alexander Asafov has commented to Alpha News on the possible development of events in the Middle East region, as well as the possibility of Washington using nuclear weapons.

“Yesterday’s international events, connected to the context of the American-Israeli attack on Iran, the sharp raising of stakes, and the effective ultimatum about destroying Iranian civilization ended with a certain rollback to a situation of announced talks in ten days in Islamabad and some cooling of tensions with a tendency toward normalization. I believe that any forecasts are untenable. One needs to look at indirect indicators related to the movement of military components and armed forces, since for now the region is being reinforced not seeing a reduction in the number of American troops, forces, and assets, or those of their allies. And here, given Trump’s unpredictability and the positions expressed overall by various representatives of his administration, the situation could roll back at any moment and become even worse in terms of escalation. Trump launched strikes during negotiations, we saw that, and accordingly shifted his position sharply to the opposite. This suggests that the ceasefire may hold and the talks may actually yield some result, rather than being cancelled at the last moment, before or during their conduct. Supporting this hypothesis is the fact that global oil prices are creating problems for the Americans. Those prices need to be stabilized. And for that, among other things, such decisions are necessary, since the problems for the global and American economy across various dimensions are proving stronger than the anticipated gains from destroying Iran,” the analyst said.

In the view of Alpha News’s interlocutor, the use of nuclear weapons would need to be accompanied by a ground operation, separately, each is pointless.

“The thing is that any strategy for the use of nuclear weapons is tied to a comprehensive military operation. Simply striking Iran with nuclear weapons would not achieve results, a ground operation would still be required, as envisioned in well-known strategic documents. Even during the strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, things were not so clear-cut: they were accompanied by other military actions. Therefore, a nuclear strike on its own will not lead to the achievement of objectives. The Americans understand this, which is why justifications emerged along the lines of: ‘Pete Hegseth didn’t say that, he didn’t propose that, and Trump didn’t state that.’ So I think the probability of nuclear weapons being used without a ground operation was extremely low. It was a form of blackmail,” Asafov concluded.