President Donald Trump said Sunday that it is “highly unlikely” that he will have to order the United States to resume war with Iran as long as progress is made in negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, repeating his assertion five times during an interview with CNN.
“It depends on whether or not they sign a very strong deal,” Trump told CNN’s Jim Sciutto in a 20-minute phone interview, referring to Iran. “The answer is very unlikely: It will be necessary. This is a bankrupt nation. You have seen inflation this year of 301%. It is very unlikely that it will be necessary. I would do it if necessary, but we hit them very hard. I hit them so hard. You don’t know how hard I hit them.”
“So it is very unlikely that I will have to do this,” he continued. “They are withering financially. We hit them militarily. We could finish them off.”
Eight months into the war, the two sides find themselves in a stalemate, with little military action and little significant diplomatic progress while oil tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz have been attacked by Iran.
The two countries and officials from Qatar, which mediated the talks, have remained silent on the status of their negotiations. But Iranian hardliners seized on the results of last week’s midterm elections – fueled in part by the war’s unpopularity with American voters – as a sign of a weakened Trump presidency that would be more willing to give in to their country’s demands to be allowed to continue its nuclear program, which it says it needs for energy, and to maintain control of the Strait.
Iran has also struggled to sell crude oil on global markets due to US sanctions, while billions of dollars of assets held in foreign banks have been frozen.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military has begun offering a reward of up to $20 million for information on Iran’s nuclear program and launched a task force aimed at preventing Tehran from using land routes to transport advanced weapons and other materials – a sign that Washington is stepping up pressure rather than easing it.
Trump, who has in the past issued mixed messages about his desire to end the war, made clear during the interview that U.S. forces would be in position in the region if he gave the order to strike. “We are ready. I have three carriers here. The other one just arrived. We have three. They are fully locked and loaded,” he said.
The president also said the United States had identified infrastructure targets inside Iran in the event of renewed military action, including power plants and bridges. “We have 38 bridges on our site that we can demolish in literally an hour,” he said. “They will all be down.”
However, he said he would prefer not to destroy Iran’s infrastructure. “I don’t want to do that because basically it’s going to take 10 years to rebuild them,” he said. “I don’t like tearing down bridges. And the hardest thing to build is a bridge. It takes years and I’m a good builder.”
Diplomatic activity in the Middle East has intensified since Tuesday’s midterm elections.
On Friday, Qatar said Trump called Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to discuss de-escalation, and a day earlier Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, Kuwait, Jordan, Turkey, Cyprus and Qatar.
Regarding Iran’s ability to defend itself against further U.S. strikes, Trump said Iran’s air defenses had been destroyed. “It’s unstoppable because they don’t have anti-aircraft equipment. All their anti-aircraft systems are gone,” he said.
The president also provided new details on the status of Iran’s missile and drone stockpiles, saying the regime maintains 10% of its missile capacity and 15% of its drone capacity.
“The only thing they can do is about a 10 percent level: make missiles and make drones. Drones at about 15 percent because a lot of their factories are gone,” he said.
“It probably won’t be necessary,” he reiterated about the prospect of further military action. “They want to make a deal so badly.”
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