A senior BBC correspondent has demolished Donald Trump’s claims that America is winning the Iran war.

Jeremy Bowen, the corporation’s international editor, tore apart the US president’s declarations of victory as a two-week ceasefire in the conflict teeters on the brink.

Trump has accused Tehran of not sticking to an agreement to re-open the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway.

Meanwhile, Israel is continuing to launch missiles against Lebanon in another apparent violation of the ceasefire.

In an article for the BBC website, Bowen said leaked versions of an American 15-point plan to end the war “sound more like a surrender document than a basis for negotiation”.

He also said that despite the killing of Iran’s supreme leader at the start of the war, there has been no regime change in the country, despite what the president has claimed.

“With or without the active participation of the new supreme leader, Iran’s regime has demonstrated depths of resilience that took Trump by surprise,” Bowen said.

“Now Donald Trump’s representatives, led by his vice-president JD Vance, must negotiate with adversaries that they claim, incorrectly, to have defeated.”

He added: “The US and Israel have done immense damage to Iran’s armed forces as well as its military and civilian infrastructure. However, while the Iranian regime may be battered, it’s also intact.

“Regime change is not happening. Iran can still launch missiles and drones. That means that despite loud claims, the US and Israel have not translated tactical victories into strategic advances.

“Iran, on the other hand, has shown that the closing of the Strait of Hormuz gives it a strategic edge that Donald Trump either dismissed or did not understand when he listened to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arguments for going to war with Iran.”

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The BBC’s international editor predicted that Donald Trump will end up “escalating” his war with Iran as the conflict hits an “inflection point”.

The US president has promised to postpone his plans to start destroying Iranian energy plants by another 10 days, claiming his negotiations with Tehran are going “very well”.

Iran is yet to publicly respond to Trump’s claims.

The US sent Iran a 15-point peace plan earlier this week, while Tehran has sent back its own proposals for a ceasefire.

But international expert Jeremy Bowen was not convinced either side would be able to reach a compromise.

He told Radio 4′s Today programme: “The Iranians are people who are interested in a deal, but it has to be a deal they would like.

“What we’ve heard so far about Trump’s 15-point plan is that, certainly the version that was leaked from Israeli sources, actually read more like a surrender document.

“It had everything in it that the US and Israel have always asked of Iran, demanded from Iran.”

He said Iran’s counter proposals then suggested ideas the other side couldn’t accept – which means it’ll be exceptionally hard to reach an agreement.

Pointing to the two detachments of US marines which are currently on their way to the Middle East, Bowen said: “Increasingly it is looking as if, if there isn’t a deal, Trump will escalate, maybe take one of the strategic islands in the Gulf.

“People talk a lot about inflection points, but it feels like that at the moment, because if they cannot do a deal, and Iran’s big card is the control of the Strait of Hormuz – which is [applying] great economic pressure – if they can’t do that, what can Donald Trump do?

“He will feel he has to escalate. And escalating will mean involving these troops.”

Bowen also warned that the US has made “a lot of mistakes in the way they look at Iran”, because it is an “institution”.

“The reason why the regime has proved to be so resilient is, unlike Libya under Gaddafi, it has these institutions, it is not based on individuals,” the expert said.

Former MI6 chief, Sir John Sawers, also claimed Trump was caught between a rock and a hard place right now.

He told the Today programme: “Trump could have declared a unilateral victory two weeks ago and walked away.

“But now with the Strait of Hormuz closed, it’s very difficult for him to claim credible victory without some movement on the Iranian side.”

He said he does not believe these negotiations will “prosper”, especially as the US has not proved to be a “very reliable interlocutor for the Iranians”.

He added that negotiations usually take weeks, but the president is clearly “in a bit of a hurry” to get any deal over the line because of the damage the war is doing to the US economy.

Donald Trump is “making it up as he goes along” in Iran, according to a BBC expert.

Jeremy Bowen, the corporation’s international affairs editor, said the US president “might learn that starting wars is much easier than ending one”.

Trump has been sending mixed signals about the conflict since America and Israel began bombing Iran 11 days ago.

The exact purpose of the war remains unclear, with the president initially suggesting it was about regime change, but also claiming the country was on the verge of obtaining a nuclear war and was preparing to attack the US.

Earlier this week, Trump said: “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough.”

That was dismissed as “nonsense” by the Iranian regime, which remains in place despite the death of the country’s former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Radio 4′s Today programme this morning, Bowen said: “It is hard to know when to stop if you don’t know exactly where you’re going.

“It is even harder to do that when the US, the world’s most powerful country, seems to have gone to war without a coherent political strategy under a president who the evidence suggests is making it up as he goes along.”

His comments come a day after he said there was “no evidence” for many of the claims Trump is making about the war.

“He’s still actually claiming erroneously that Iran was a few weeks away from getting a nuclear weapon – there’s no evidence for that,” Bowen said.

“He’s also said that Iran has Tomahawk cruise missiles that could have destroyed that girls’ school where so many were killed. There’s no evidence for that either because they’ve only sold them to Britain and Australia.”

The BBC’s top Middle East expert has demolished Donald Trump’s latest claims about the war in Iran.

Jeremy Bowen, the broadcaster’s international affairs editor, said there was “no evidence” for some of the things the US president is saying.

Bowen said Trump had been “rather spooked by the economic consequences thus far of the war” after a spike in oil prices raised fears of a global crisis.

“He’s trying to calm the markets a little bit, he’s shaping the victory he’s going to claim,” said Bowen.

“He’s still actually claiming erroneously that Iran was a few weeks away from getting a nuclear weapon – there’s no evidence for that.

“He’s also said that Iran has Tomahawk cruise missiles that could have destroyed that girls’ school where so many were killed. There’s no evidence for that either because they’ve only sold them to Britain and Australia.”

Bowen also disputed Trump’s claims that the war is “very complete, pretty much”, and warned that the potential consequences for the whole Middle East are huge.

He said: “In terms of the wider region, if what’s happening subsequently causes chaos and breakdown in Iran, and right now the regime appears to be surviving, that will be immensely dangerous regionally.”

Iran has also disputed Trump’s claims that the war is nearing its end.

A spokesperson from the IRGC – Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – said: “It is we who will determine the end of the war.

“The equations and future status of the region are now in the hands of our armed forces; American forces will not end the war.”

A BBC expert has demolished Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s case for bombing Iran.

Israel said the attacks were “pre-emptive” to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons and firing at them.

In his statement announcing the bombing, Trump said: “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”

But Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international affairs editor, dismissed those arguments.

He said: “Israel used the word ‘pre-emptive’ to justify its attack – the largest in the Israeli Air Force’s history, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

“The evidence is that this is not a response to an imminent threat, which the word pre-emption implies. Instead, it is a war of choice.”

The military action, Bowen said, was “another blow to the tottering system of international law”.

He added: “In their statements, both Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran was a danger to their countries – Trump said it was a global danger.

“The Islamic regime is certainly their bitter enemy. But it is hard to see how the legal justification of self-defence applies given the huge disparity of power between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.”

Bowen also warned that Trump’s stated objective of regime change in Iran will be far from straightforward – and could lead to a wider conflict in the Middle East.

He said: “There is no precedent for regime change happening just because of air strikes.

“Even if this becomes the first case of air power alone collapsing a regime, the Islamic regime will not be replaced by a liberal democracy that upholds human rights. There is no credible alternative government in exile waiting in the wings.”

The Middle East expert went on: “Iran’s remaining leaders will now be calculating how to ride out the war, how to survive and how to manage its consequences.

“Their neighbours, led by Saudi Arabia, will be dismayed by the huge uncertainty and potential consequences of today’s events.

“Given the capacity of the Middle East to export trouble, the eruption of renewed and intensified war deepens the instability of a region and wider world that is already turbulent, violent and dangerous.”