US President Donald Trump suggested, while speaking in Florida, that the US and Israel had, for the moment, left some potentially major targets in Iran untouched, including electricity stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Harrison, the senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who has been speaking with Al Jazeera, said that the comments underscored confusion over the \u201cpolitical objectives\u201d of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He referred to Trump claiming that the US wanted to create conditions for the Iranian people to take over their government. But if the US attacked facilities like electricity stations, Harrison said, it could not reasonably expect support from everyday Iranians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Trump administration has clear military objectives, but unclear political objectives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Esmaeil Baghaei, Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, issued a sharp rebuke of US policy, saying that a White House-endorsed report has unmasked the true economic motives behind the recent military escalation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to a social media post by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt \u2013 which featured a Fox News article titled \u201cOperation Epic Fury proves it is both America First and proudly MAGA\u201d \u2013 Baghaei said the primary objective of \u201cUS and Israeli aggression\u201d is the seizure of Iran\u2019s oil reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the Trump administration has framed Iran\u2019s energy resources as the \u201cfinal piece of the puzzle\u201d in a broader strategy to dominate global energy supplies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tehran\u2019s resistance serves the broader interests of the global community and the \u201cGlobal South\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIran has not merely defended itself against this brutal war of aggression, it has defended the very principles of sovereignty and self-determination,\u201d Baghaei said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBullying power politics\u201d have created a global crisis that should alarm anyone concerned with independence and international norms, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US President Donald Trump suggested, while speaking in Florida, that the US and Israel had, for the moment, left some potentially major targets in Iran untouched, including electricity stations. But Harrison, the senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who has been speaking with Al Jazeera, said that the comments underscored confusion over the \u201cpolitical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,36],"tags":[215,220],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-iran","tag-trump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"full":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump.jpg",1024,683,false]},"categories_names":{"27":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/?cat=27"},"36":{"name":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/?cat=36"}},"tags_names":{"215":{"name":"Iran","link":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/?tag=iran"},"220":{"name":"Trump","link":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/?tag=trump"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"cvmm-medium":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"cvmm-medium-plus":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-305x207.jpg",305,207,true],"cvmm-portrait":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-400x600.jpg",400,600,true],"cvmm-medium-square":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-600x600.jpg",600,600,true],"cvmm-large":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump.jpg",1024,683,false],"cvmm-small":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump-130x95.jpg",130,95,true],"full":["https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Trump.jpg",1024,683,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1075,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions\/1075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsnest.co.ug\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}