BBC Expert Iran Not Defeated Despite Trump Claims

A BBC expert has warned that Iran “is not defeated yet” despite Donald Trump’s repeated claims that America has already won the war.

Security correspondent Frank Gardner said the regime in Tehran is “playing the long game” in the face of the US president’s latest threats.

At the weekend, Trump gave Iran 48 hours to re-open the Strait of Hormuz or face it’s power plants being “obliterated” by US missiles.

With that deadline set to expire at around midnight UK time, there is no sign of Tehran acceding to the president’s request.

Instead, Gardner said Iran was prepared to respond in kind against other Gulf nations, thereby prolonging the war.

Speaking to Radio 4′s Today programme from Doha, he said: “I don’t think anyone doubts that if Donald Trump goes through with this ultimatum – and he doesn’t always do that – there is a real concern that if power plants were hit by Iran here on this side of the Gulf, potentially that could effect things like desalination, which provides the drinking water for the Gulf.

“Millions of people depend on these plants to have their daily drinking water. Summer is approaching, daytime temperatures are above 30 degrees, that would be a crisis. And Iran knows that. It’s played a very clever strategic game.

“It may have lost tactically, huge amounts of hardware and commanders. But it’s playing the long game and it’s not defeated yet.”

Gardner also said that Iranian retaliatory attacks were shaking the confidence of Americas allies in the region.

“Governments here have to worry whether their strategic alliance with the United States is making them more vulnerable, not less,” he said.