New Delhi: Republican White House hopeful Donald Trump said on Friday that Israel should target Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to the Islamic Republic’s recent missile barrage. His remark came after President Joe Biden said that an “all-out war” is unlikely and should be avoided in the Middle East amid escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.
Trump was referring to a question posed to President Biden about the possibility of Israel targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities in response to the 200-missile attack.
“They asked him, what do you think about Iran? Would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff’. That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump said, AFP reportef.
He added, “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons.” The Republican Presidential candidate for the November 5 US elections said that Biden should have asked Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear sites and” worry about everything else later”.
“If they’re going to do it, they’re going to do it. But we’ll find out whatever their plans are,” Donald Trump added.
The 78-year-old’s remark came a day after President Joe Biden said that an “all-out war” in the Middle East was unlikely. When asked how confident he was about a massive war breaking out in the Middle East as Lebanon and Iran try to corner Israel, Biden said, “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.”
Asked if he would send American troops to help Israel, he responded: “We have already helped Israel. We are going to protect Israel.”
Notably, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his first Friday sermon in five years, called Iran’s attack on Israel “legal and legitimate” and the minimum punishment for “Israel’s crimes”.
“Israel pretends to win through assassinations, destruction, bombing and killing of civilians. This behaviour increased the resistance’s motivation. This reality shows us that every strike launched by any group against Israel is a service to the region and to all humanity,” he said, according to the report.