US president speaks in Florida after a call with Putin, who reportedly said he wanted to be ‘helpful’ on the Middle East war.
United States President Donald Trump has said that he expects the war on Iran to be over “very soon” after dubbing the past 10 days of war, which have wrought devastation on Iran, a “short-term excursion”.
Addressing the media in Doral, Florida, Trump claimed that the US and Israel had struck 5,000 targets since the war began on February 28, when Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.
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Trump spoke as Iran’s hardliners staged a show of loyalty to new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei – the former supreme leader’s son – whose appointment was confirmed on Sunday amid US-Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, civilian areas and critical infrastructure, such as oil refineries and a desalination plant.
While Trump appeared to say hostilities would soon end, he nevertheless threatened a larger attack on Iran if it continued to block shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which has led to a major spike in oil prices, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, at one point topping $119 a barrel.
“I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply. And if Iran does anything to do that, they’ll get hit at a much, much harder level,” the US president said.
He said the US was putting an end to threats in the Strait of Hormuz, offering political risk insurance to tankers operating in the Gulf” and asserting, “We’ll perhaps go alongside them for protection”.
He also said that the US and Israel were continuing to target Iran’s drone and missile stocks. “Starting today, we know all of the places they manufacture drones, and they’re being hit one after the another,” he said, adding that the country’s “missile capability” was “down to about 10 percent, maybe less”.
‘Short-term excursion’
Earlier, Trump had told a gathering of Republicans at his golf club in Doral that the war in Iran was a “short-term excursion”, while insisting that the offensive would continue “until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated”.
“We took a little excursion because we felt we had to do that to get rid of some people,” Trump told assembled guests. “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough.”
Trump’s appearance at the news conference came on the back of his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump said Putin wanted “to be helpful” on the latter conflict.
“I said, ‘You could be more helpful by getting the Ukraine war over with. That will be more helpful.’ But we had a very good talk,” Trump said.
Unlike Trump, Putin had on Monday congratulated Mojtaba Khamenei on succeeding his late father as supreme leader, reaffirming Moscow’s support for Tehran.
Asked about the new supreme leader, Trump said he was “disappointed” about the selection. “We think it’s going to lead to just more of the same problem for the country.”
When asked whether the new leader had a target on his back, Trump said it would be “inappropriate” for him to say.
Israel has said it will target for assassination any new Iranian leader chosen to replace Ayatollah Khamenei.
Referring back to last year’s 12-day war, Trump reiterated claims that if the US and Israel had not launched their joint offensive to “knock out the Iranian potential”, Iran would have a nuclear weapon.
“They would’ve used it long before now, and at a minimum, Israel would have been annihilated,” he added.