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The United States has no immediate plans to strike Iran, Donald Trump said, as the president played down speculation that he was preparing to escalate his conflict with the Islamic republic after the midterm elections.
In an interview with the FT on Tuesday, the US president suggested he was satisfied with the state of the standoff with Iran – although he indicated he was prepared for more war if necessary.
“It seems like we’re getting everything we want,” Trump said in a six-minute phone interview.
Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strong hints that there would be an attack later this week, Trump replied: “I’m ready, we’re ready. We’re locked and loaded if we have to go, but there may be no reason for that.”
The president’s comments came just hours before polls closed across the country in a congressional election that was dominated by voters’ concern over inflation and soaring fuel prices that followed his decision to go to war with Iran.
The United States launched airstrikes against Iran on Monday, hitting targets on the island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz, in what Washington described as a defensive measure aimed at protecting American military assets in the Middle East.
Trump claimed energy prices would fall sharply after the midterm elections and told the FT that there was now more oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz – the critical choke point for Gulf crude supplies – than before the war and that a US blockade on Iranian ports had succeeded in stifling Tehran’s economy.
“It’s a brilliant situation,” Trump said.
The United States was not “really” fighting Iran, he added. “We’re not really at war, because we hit them with the B2 bombers and erased their potential nuclear incapacitation. We then hit them again, Epic Fury, etc… But if you think about it, we haven’t really had a war with them in a long time, six months, maybe more.”
Trump added: “I don’t consider that we’re in a war like Ukraine, in wars like World War I or World War II. »
The U.S. leader stressed he would not share any plans for an attack in advance, but said indirect negotiations with Iran over the fate of its stockpile of about 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium — “nuclear dust,” as he calls it — were underway.
“Even though it’s under hundreds of tons of rock, I would say I’m not happy that it’s there,” Trump said. “So that’s one of the things we’re talking to them about. But you know, we’re having discussions and we’ll see how it all goes.”
Hopes for a breakthrough in U.S.-Iran peace talks have driven down oil prices in recent days, with Brent crude falling more than $10 a barrel in recent days, to around $104. But on Tuesday, U.S. gasoline prices hit a new average high regardless of administration.
Trump’s muted tone in his interview with the FT suggests a president whose attention has turned, at least momentarily, from his job as US commander in chief. He answered questions about Iran but preferred to focus on what he said would be a Republican victory in the midterms.
Polls taken before the vote indicate a victory for Democrats, who could succeed in taking control of the House of Representatives and the US Senate. Republicans have pinned their hopes on Trump generating strong turnout from his Maga base to defend the party’s control of Congress.
But on Monday, Trump delivered one of the most bizarre election closing speeches in history, in which he touted his work renovating the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool.
“Every one of (his campaign rallies) has been a home run,” he told the FT. “They were packed. There were thousands and thousands of people outside the big arenas and they couldn’t even get in.”
If Trump’s optimism about the Republican outlook is misplaced, his tone on confronting Iran could abruptly shift, as it already has.
He added that he was optimistic about peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
“I think they’re both on the verge of saying, ‘Let’s make a deal,'” he said. Trump’s optimism is not shared by Ukrainian negotiators.
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