President Donald Trump has intensified his rhetoric toward Tehran, publicly questioning whether he should destroy Iran entirely even as his administration prepares for more diplomatic engagement at the United Nations this week. The remarks are the latest addition to the view that the Iran war remains far from settled.
Donald Trump weighs the next phase of the Iran war while leaving talks open
Trump told Fox News on Sunday that he is deciding between three paths: “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal.” He then raised the stakes with a question: “My question is if and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave.” The host said the president is in a “deciding mode” and that “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future.”
The president’s comments build on what he told Axios on Thursday, that he is considering whether to “go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not,” adding that anything “could happen with me.” Even so, Trump has not closed the door on negotiation. He is expected to meet with six Persian Gulf leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly this week, and his administration will allow a “core delegation” of Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, to attend the session.
The Iran war has pushed energy costs a lot higher worldwide. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping route, has driven fuel prices up for nearly seven months. Donald Trump has repeatedly dismissed the burden. At a North Carolina rally, he called it “a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done,” predicting prices would soon come “tumbling down… like rocket ships in reverse.”
On the other hand, Middle Eastern governments are preparing for wider violence after Iran said it obtained intelligence that Washington was planning renewed bombing campaigns. Trump cut short a Camp David visit on Sunday without explanation, and the State Department issued a security alert to U.S. citizens across the region.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that any strike would turn “all US bases and interests in the region” into “targets of continuous, effective and painful attacks without any limitations or considerations” (via The Guardian).
