Washington: President Donald Trump on Monday said the United States would either strike a deal with Iran or “finish the job,” reviving his warning of military action as Tehran struck a defiant tone after the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters reported.
The remarks came after indirect US-Iran talks ended last week without any visible breakthrough toward a durable peace, even with a 60-day ceasefire meant to open space for diplomacy following the US and Israeli strikes that set off the conflict.
“We’re
either going to make a deal or we’re going to finish the job. OK. And it won’t be tough to finish the job. I’d rather make a deal, because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“We can knock down their bridges in one hour, we can knock out their energy supply…. They don’t have any money now. We haven’t given them any money.”
Reacting sharply to the US president’s warning, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr described the threat as “delusional.”
“Iranians are unfamiliar with the language of threats. So speak to the Iranian people with respect, otherwise we will respond in another language,” Zolqadr said in comments carried by state media.
Trump’s comments followed Khamenei’s funeral over the weekend, where Iran appeared far from subdued despite the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28. Instead, the public mood suggested defiance, unity and a resolve to shape the next phase of the conflict.
Washington had intended the 60-day ceasefire to revive diplomacy aimed at stopping Iran from developing a nuclear arsenal.