Middle East put on the brink of war again after fresh Donald Trump outburst

Middle East put on the brink of war again after fresh Donald Trump outburst As US President Donald Trump loses patience over the Iran he again puts the entire Middle East on alert for another escalation with boots on the ground threat saying Iran will be 'hit hard' US President Donald Trump cast further confusion onto Iran peace talks on Thursday - claiming he had cancelled a massive attack after a sudden change in progress. Earlier Trump warned the US would hit Iran “very hard tonight” and even seize a key Iranian island but then he announced: "Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved." The president has repeatedly claimed the war was nearly at an end for the last three months, saying a settlement was close almost 20 times. On Thursday evening he said: "The Naval Blockade will remain in full force and effect until this Transaction is finalised — time and place of the signing to be announced shortly." Earlier he threatened to catapult the Middle East towards a bigger war after a second day of missile exchanges in the latest escalation in the region. It was set off after attacks between Iran and Israel over daily air-strikes on suspected Hezbollah positions throughout Lebanon and Iranian attacks on US bases. Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the U.S. attacks had "effectively rendered the ceasefire ... meaningless," without saying it was abandoning it. Kharg Island - on the other side of the Persian Gulf from U.S. bases in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia - is the beating heart of Iran's oil industry, through which 90% of its exports pass. It is a key landmark because Iran's coastline is mostly too shallow for tanker ships to dock- and thousands of US Marines are in the region, along with attack helicopters. Trump said: "My preference has always been to take Kharg Island.” But he added: I don't know that America has the stomach for it to be honest." American troops would be vulnerable on Kharg Island because of its being just 21 miles - to the Iranian mainland, from which missiles, drones and artillery could be fired. At the same time Trump indicated he remains averse to sending U.S. forces into Iran. He said: "We could walk in there tomorrow. We could take soldiers - I don't want to have boots on the ground. But if I wanted to we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place." American forces have deployed more huge Stratotanker warplanes used to refuel fighter jets in mid-air to the region. And three more B-52 bombers are believed to have set off for the Middle East. In Baghdad in Iraq the US Embassy has warned Americans to remain on high-alert for a resumption of attacks. A huge US armada is parked in the region, including two aircraft carriers and up to 18 destroyers and an unknown number of submarines. Some 50,000 US troops are based in the region currently in bases throughout the Middle East, along with squadrons of fighter bombers in bases such as the one in Jordan. Three Indian nationals were killed after the US fired on a tanker off the coast of Oman on Wednesday. The US military said it fired on the Palau-flagged vessel M/T Settebello as part of its blockade of Iran. Overnight, the US and Iran made several contradictory claims on flare-ups in the region. Iran claimed it had hit a US warship and shut the Strait of Hormuz. But the US said this wasn't true. Trump said Iran had asked him to stop the attacks. Iranian officials said this wasn't true.