Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump ordered fresh strikes against Iran for the second consecutive day questioning whether Tehran could be trusted to honour any agreement.
“We hit back much harder,” Trump said.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington after the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump said the United States had responded after attacks on commercial vessels.
“They just we just hit it very hard, and I say we hit them 20 to 1; every time they hit us, we’re going to hit them 20. And we did it last night; we did a little something today, but it was really retribution for last night they hit actually three boats, not two, and when they hit we hit back much harder,” Trump said.
Asked whether the exchange marked a return to full-scale military conflict, Trump said, “I don’t know, I don’t know,” but added that Washington had several options.
“We have many ways we can win, but we’ve already won militarily; they have very little left, and they want to make a deal so badly they called a little while ago they want to make a deal so badly I just don’t know if they’re worthy of making a deal,” he said.
“I don’t know that they’re going to honour the deal; that’s the problem,” Trump said.
Asked why Iran would attack commercial vessels if it wanted a deal, Trump said, “Because it’s not crazy, to be honest with you, it’s so crazy they’re a little bit out of control, but they want to make a deal badly.”
Trump said the confrontation was centred on denying Iran nuclear weapons.
