US President Donald Trump on Friday said that the Iranian leadership is yet to reach a settlement with Washington to end the ongoing war because they’re “strong” and “proud,” remarking that in the end “they’ve got no choice” except to reach an agreement.
“They’re strong, they’re proud, there are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” Trump told NBC News in an interview.
The US leader’s comments come as negotiations between Tehan and Washington to end the war entered its fourth month last week, though with seemingly no end in sight, as the two nations find themselves in a diplomatic deadlock with the ceasefire reached April just barely holding.
Further threatening the fragile ceasefire, tensions between both sides flared in recent days when both sides traded strikes near the Strait of Hormuz.
The country’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday told House lawmakers that the military operation, which the Trump administration has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” “has concluded,” adding that the strikes earlier in the week were “defensive in nature,” and told Congress members were in response to Iran’s attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
“In order to protect our own forces, we don’t just strike the drones, we strike the people who launch those drones. These are completely defensive in nature, but they are happening in response to an Iranian action. If they don’t shoot at those ships, we don’t shoot, but we have to respond,” Rubio said.
Trump and his GOP administration have been heavily critical of Iran, and have repeatedly maintained that its joint strikes at Tehran in coordination with Israel were highly necessary to derail the Islamic Republic’s nuclear, and ballistic missiles programme.
While Tehran’s nuclear, and missile programme have indeed faced substantial damage, the impact has been far less than what Washington and Jerusalem had hoped, due to it retaining its vast stockpile of highly enriched uranium, as well as possessing thousands of drones and missiles despite heavy damage to its military infrastructure.
Amid the soaring oil and gas prices in both the US and across the globe, following the vital waterway’s closure by Iran, Washington has come under great pressure to put the conflict to bed to ease the resultant domestic and global strain.
During Friday’s interview, Trump also slammed those who were urging him to quickly reach a deal with Tehran to end the war, saying, “It takes years to do these things.”
“These people have been fighting for 47 years. They’ve been killing Americans,” the president said, referring to Iranian leaders.
“They’ve been taking off their legs and their arms and their faces have been hurt so badly and so horribly.”
Comparing the length of the ongoing conflict to the Vietnam War, Trump further remarked “I’m moving very fast. I’m into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I’m into my third month, and all they do is say, ‘Whoa, when are you going to win?’ If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve gotten so used to it.”
Reiterating his claims of Iran military capabilities being destroyed, he said that so far in the conflict, Washington has “totally destroyed their military,” but added that Iran still does have some missiles and drones.
“Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, most of the launching pads have been knocked out, and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out. But they still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones,” he said.
“I would say percentagewise, maybe 21%-22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked.”
So far, Iran has displayed that it currently retains potent missile and drone capabilities by launching a series of attacks across the Persian Gulf earlier this week, even hitting the Kuwait International Airport, as well as firing at US vessels in the Sea of Oman.
