US President Donald Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday that he would like to “take over Iran's oil” and may take over the export center on Khark Island, the starting point for 90%. Iranian oil exports.
Trump explained that he would love to seize oil, but “some fools in the US” are asking: “Why are you doing this?”
The president is strengthening American forces in the Middle East, and the Pentagon has ordered the deployment of 10,000. soldiers trained for landing operations – recalled “FT”. On Friday, approximately 3.5 thousand people arrived in the region. soldiers, including over 2,000 marines. Another 2.2 thousand Marines are on the way, and thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division have also been ordered to the Middle East.
However, an attack on the export center would be risky, increasing the risk of further casualties on the American side and extending the costs and duration of the war.
Maybe we'll get Chark Island, maybe we won't. “We have a lot of options,” Trump said, adding that taking the island would mean “we would have to stay there for a while.”
When asked about the state of Iranian defense on the island, Trump said he doubted Iran had “any defense there. We could take it over very easily.”
The war has been escalating in recent days, and 12 US soldiers were injured in Friday's attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the American E-3 Sentry reconnaissance plane worth $270 million was damaged. Houthi rebels in Yemen have threatened a new phase of escalation by firing a ballistic missile at Israel.
Trump: We bombed 13,000 and another few thousand ahead of us
However, despite threats to seize Iranian oil, Trump stressed that talks between the US and Iran through Pakistani “envoys” were progressing well. The president has set an April 6 deadline by which Iran must accept a deal to end the war or face renewed U.S. attacks on its energy sector.
Asked whether it would be possible to reach a ceasefire agreement in the coming days that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one fifth of the world's oil typically flows, Trump declined to provide details.
“We have about 3,000 left. targets – we bombed 13,000 and another few thousand ahead of us” – he said. “An agreement can be concluded quite quickly,” he added.
Last week, Trump said that Iran, which blocked the Strait of Hormuz in the first days of the war, thereby stopping tanker traffic, had allowed the transit of 10 Pakistan-flagged tankers as a “gift” to the White House. In an interview with the British daily, Trump added that the number of tankers had increased to 20.
“They gave us ten,” he said. “Now they are giving 20, and these 20 have already started (the voyage) and are heading to the middle of the Strait of Hormuz,” he explained.
Trump said Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, one of the country's top wartime leaders, had approved the additional tankers.
“He approved these ships for me,” Trump said. “Remember when I said they were giving me a gift? And everyone said, 'What kind of gift is that? Nonsense'. When they found out about it, they kept quiet. The negotiations are going very well.”
Trump also declared that “regime change” has already occurred in Iran after Iran's longtime Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and numerous other senior officials were killed early in the war and in subsequent attacks.
“The people we're dealing with are a completely different group of people,” Trump said. The president repeated earlier claims that Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, may be dead or seriously injured.
“(Ali Khamenei's) son is either dead or in very bad condition,” Trump said. “We haven't heard anything from him. He left,” he added.
Authorities in Tehran assure that Mojtaba Khamenei is safe, but his absence from public life has fueled speculation that he was seriously injured, the Financial Times recalled. (PAP)
os/ap/
