US President Donald Trump has said the United States is “essentially controlling” strategic waterways linked to Iran and will soon take full control, while reiterating that Tehran will not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
In an interview with his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, broadcast by 77 WABC Radio, Trump defended his military actions against Iran and acknowledged that the conflict could lead to higher energy and petrol prices for American consumers.
“Now with Iran, they will never have a nuclear weapon. We’re controlling, essentially controlling and soon controlling the Straits. We’re doing very well with Iran,” Trump said.
Trump did not name the waterways in the portion of the interview released on Wednesday.
He said Iran’s navy, air force and leadership had been severely weakened, making a negotiated settlement more difficult.
“Part of the problem is so many of the leaders are gone. It’s not easy to make a deal. Nobody knows who’s leading,” Trump said.
Trump argued that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons justified higher energy costs for Americans.
“And I tell them, they’ll be, uh, a little higher for your energy cost, but they’ll be a little bit higher for gasoline. But we have to make a journey to the Middle East because we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
The President claimed Iran had been “militarily wiped out” and had lost significant capacity to produce missiles and drones. He also cited inflation, a weakened currency and unpaid military personnel as signs of mounting pressure on Tehran.
“The reason I did it, and we had no choice, and I would’ve done it again a hundred times, they cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t be having a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Trump also defended the use of B-2 bombers against Iranian nuclear facilities, saying the operation was carried out deep at night and that every bomb hit its target.
“When we hit them with the B-2 bombers, they were exactly two weeks away from having a nuclear weapon,” he said. “And that’s why I had to do it, because you cannot let them have that kind of a weapon.”
The President said Iran would have attacked Israel and other countries in the Middle East if it had obtained nuclear weapons. He named Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain among countries he said had been targeted by Iranian missiles.
“There would be no Israel if there was no Donald Trump,” he said, adding that he believed the Middle East would have been “entirely wiped out”, while Israel “definitely would have been wiped out”.
Trump also spoke about Venezuela, immigration, tariffs and the US economy. He claimed tariffs were encouraging automobile, semiconductor, pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturing to return to the United States, describing the resulting investment and construction activity as “a renaissance”.
Cohen served for years as Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer before the two had a bitter public split. He later testified against Trump and became one of his most prominent critics.
–IANS
