Just days after he was threatening to annihilate Iran to UN general assembly, Trump is now claiming he's rejecting an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Just days after he was threatening to annihilate Iran to the UN General Assembly, it is stunning that Trump is now claiming he's rejecting an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Donald Trump has a habit of discomfiting delegates to the United Nations general assembly. But this year, he may have upstaged the ghost of Nikita Khrushchev by openly contemplating the annihilation of a fellow UN member state.
Eleven minutes into a 40-minute address, the US president announced he had “a big decision to make” over Iran, which has staged a much more determined resistance than Trump anticipated when he decided to go to war against the country in February.
“Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild, and create a far greater country than it ever was before?” he asked. “Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?”
President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran will never "bend the knee" after almost seven months of war with the US and Israel, but is ready for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Responding to US President Donald Trump's threat to "annihilate" the Islamic Republic if a deal is not reached soon, he told the UN General Assembly: "The resistance of the Iranian people will only increase in the face of sanctions, increased pressure, increased bullying."
Pezeshkian also insisted any deal would have to include an end to the US blockade stopping Iranian ships from using a key Gulf waterway.
"It cannot be the case that everyone benefits from the Strait of Hormuz while we are denied access," he said.
There was no immediate comment from the US, whose delegation walked out of the chamber at the start of Pezeshkian's address.
Speaking to reporters Saturday as he departed the White House for Tennessee, where he is expected to attend a college football contest between the Texas Longhorns and the Tennessee Volunteers, Trump appeared to confirm an earlier report from The Wall Street Journalwhich said he had already refused the deal.
“Well I’m rejecting their deal,” Trump said.
“They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” the president continued. “You know you don’t read that, you don’t see that in the fake news.
“We’re winning tremendously. We have total control of the Hormuz Strait, massive amounts of oil are coming out of the Hormuz Strait,” he said.
“Last night we had 29 ships come out. They want to make a deal, and I think that’s fine, I like making a deal, too, but that deal would not be acceptable,” Trump added.
“And what they want to do is immediately open the Hormuz Strait. You know why? Because they’re dying,” Trump said. “You know why they’re dying? Because they have no money coming in. Because they get their money from the Hormuz Strait.
“So they outsmarted themselves. They said, ‘Let’s close it and cause a problem for the world.’ And then I came along and we put up the greatest blockade ever in military history. It’s a wall of steel.”
“I would put it up and guess what? They don’t have any money now because they wanted to close the strait. And I said, ‘That’s fine, we’re going to close it on you. But everybody else is able to use it,’” Trump continued.
The Iranians know they can't trust Trump to honor any deal they might make.
29 ships when before his illegal war it was 125.
He says it’s open and then he says they want to open it. 😂😂😂
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