King Charles’s private concern that the United States-Iran conflict continues to grind on nearly seven months after it began has emerged following an apparent hot mic exchange.
The 77-year-old monarch was hosting members of the Pakistan cricket team at Clarence House when he spoke with Mohsin Naqvi, the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and Pakistan’s Interior Minister, who is also involved in talks between Washington and Tehran.
During the conversation, the King was heard telling Mr Naqvi: “It’s all going backwards.”
The remark surfaced as reports said Donald Trump has been privately consulting senior advisers over whether to state that the war with Iran has now come to an end.
Mr Naqvi, who has been working to help broker a peace deal involving the US, Israel and Iran, appeared to acknowledge the fragile pace of diplomacy, saying: “Yes, it is a story of one step forward and one step back.”
Charles told him the talks would clearly be challenging, adding: ‘We’re going to have to rely on you a great deal.’
Mr Naqvi appeared to say the US-Iran talks had been ‘one of the most difficult’ he had been involved in.
The conversation was picked up by a microphone from Pakistan’s most-watched TV news channel, Geo News.
Mr Naqvi later told the broadcaster that the King had acknowledged Pakistan’s work towards peace and security in the Middle East, calling his talks with Charles ‘very productive’.
Charles also met the Pakistan cricket team, who are currently 2-0 down to England in a three-match series. They presented the King with a signed bat.
The King told Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman and Pakistan’s Interior Minister, who is leading the US-Iran peace talks, that the crisis appeared to be ‘going backwards’
Britain’s King Charles is presented with a signed cricket bat as he meets members of the Pakistan National Cricket Team during an audience with the team at Clarence House
The Wall Street Journal cited officials overnight who said that the US President now favours the idea of ending the conflict, now in its seventh month.
Sources say Trump told his aides that he believes piling economic pressure on Tehran will eventually force the regime either to dismantle its nuclear programme or collapse.
Meanwhile, his advisors are warning Trump that an escalation of the Iran war beyond recent strikes could endanger Republican prospects in the November midterm elections.
However the President said he isn’t taking electoral consequences into account when making decisions on the war.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said that the US military would remain prepared to launch more strikes ‘any time we want,’ similarly to its offensive this week after Iran tried to lay new mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
‘We see everything that they’re doing,’ Trump said. ‘They can’t go to the bathroom without us seeing it.’
Writing on social media, Trump said: ‘I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing.’
‘They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?’
Previously, Trump had appeared to pivot towards trying to bend Iran to his will through economic sanctions.
He warned that if Iran retaliated for the new strikes ‘they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level’.
Iran continued attacking US military bases in Kuwait on Thursday, however, despite Trump threatening further strikes in a fresh flare-up just over six months into the war.
Donald Trump is holding private discussions with senior aides about whether to declare the war in Iran over
Security chief Mohsen Rezaei warned the US that Iran had adopted a ‘new strategy’ in the war that ‘will shatter your foundations’.
After a respite of more than a month, fighting between the US and Iran has been increasing since the weekend.
It comes after the US hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran retaliating by firing missiles at American bases in Jordan. All were intercepted.
Kuwait’s army said Thursday it was intercepting a missile and drone attack from Iran, with Iranian state TV confirming that Tehran was targeting US bases in the Gulf state ‘in response to America’s crimes against the Iranian people’.
On Wednesday, Bahrain, which hosts an important US naval base, intercepted an Iranian aerial attack.
It said its air defense systems intercepted incoming fire from Iran, accusing the country of ‘attacks targeting civilians’ in a statement issued by its military.
The renewed violence threatens to fully reignite the conflict and has led to a spike in oil prices, roiled the global economy and is posing increasing political problems.
On Wednesday, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, climbed above $95, up more than 30 per cent from the start of the war.
But oil prices sank Thursday after the US president said the latest round of strikes could be over soon.
Asked how long the bombing campaign could last, he told reporters: ‘I don’t think too long.’
Ahead of the morning attacks on Bahrain on Wednesday, Iran fired missiles at Jordan and drones at Kuwait – all of which were intercepted.
On Monday, the United Arab Emirates said it had intercepted an incoming Iranian drone over its waters as well.
The US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday night that it had completed the latest barrage against Iranian military targets including air defense sites, radar systems and maritime assets.
One US strike hit a home hosting a wedding, according to Iranian media. At least five people were killed, including a child, and at least 68 others were wounded, according to Iranian officials.
Meanwhile, two oil tankers hit sea mines and were disabled while attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.
In a statement, the Guards said the tankers had been forced to disembark their crews and were placed in the hands of US operatives to pass through what it called an ‘illegal route’ in the strategic waterway, despite earlier warnings from the Guards’ navy about the dangers of crossing the mined passage.
In a separate statement, the Iranian army said ‘dozens of the army’s attack drones… have targeted radar systems and the positions of US forces at the Al Dhafra and Al Minhad bases in the United Arab Emirates’.
It said it also targeted ‘radar installations and gathering points’ of US forces at Bahrain’s Sheikh Isa Airbase.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards meanwhile said they targeted US forces in Kuwait, Jordan, Bahrain and Erbil in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
They added on Wednesday that four personnel were killed in a US attack on the western province of Kermanshah.
‘Four fighters of the IRGC Aerospace Force in Kermanshah province were martyred in an attack by the US regime,’ the Guards said in a statement carried by Fars news agency, using their acronym.
During last month’s lull in fighting, the US ramped up economic pressure on Iran, which is suffering from soaring inflation, negative growth and a collapsing currency, as Washington sought to win concessions to fully open the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping traffic.
About a fifth of the world’s traded oil was shipped through the key waterway before Israel and the US attacked Iran on February 28 and Iran largely shut it down.
Despite many pronouncements from Washington that the strait is open, only a handful of ships are making the passage each day and Iran has regularly attacked vessels.
Trump suggested on Wednesday renaming the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping lane that Tehran has effectively shut for six months, as ‘Trump Strait’ – although he implied later that he wasn’t serious.
‘Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???’ the US president wrote on Truth Social.
In launching its latest attacks, US Central Command said it was responding to Tehran trying to hit commercial ships and American forces in the Middle East.
At the moment, the US military is maintaining a presence of 50,000 troops in the region.
Their current goals include intercepting Iranian missiles and providing cover for commercial ships in the strait while blockading Iranian ports and coastal areas.
They are also ready to launch bigger offensive attacks if Trump decides to escalate the war.