Washington DC [US], April 24 : US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) said he would not use a nuclear weapon in the conflict with Iran, stating that such weapons should never be used by anyone.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, when asked whether he would use a nuclear weapon against Iran, Trump said, "Why would a stupid question like that be asked?... No, I wouldn't use it. A nuclear weapon should never be allowed to be used by anybody."
Further, Trump said the United States has a strong economy and sufficient oil supply, added that several ships are now heading to the US instead of the Strait of Hormuz, amid efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.
" ... We have this unbelievable economy... I called JD, Marco, Howard and Scott and told them that I hate to tell you, but we have to do a little bit of a detour. We have to go to Iran and make sure that they are out of nuclear weapons... A lot of ships are coming to the United States, and they are using the United States instead of the Hormuz Strait... We don't have an oil shortage... We are right now producing more oil than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined... We are taking in millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela," he said.
He also said the United States has "total control" over the Strait of Hormuz and is deliberately keeping it closed to pressure Iran into a deal, adding that he wants a lasting agreement and will not rush the process despite claiming significant progress.
"... I gave them a break. I want to make the best deal. I could make a deal right now. Do you know that if I left right now, we had a tremendous success. It would take them 20 years to rebuild, but I don't want to do that. I want to have it everlasting... What I am doing, I can't tell you that. I don't want to put that kind of timetable on it, but it will go pretty quickly. We will have the Strait opened up. Right now, we have it closed. We have total control of the Strait," he further said.
"They would have opened it up 3 days ago. They came to us, and they said, 'We will agree to open the Strait.' All my people were happy except me. I said, 'One minute, if we open the Strait, that means they are going to make $500 million a day.' I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I am the one that kept it closed. We have total control of it. It will open when they make a deal or something else happens that is very positive," he said.
Trump said he is under no pressure to end the West Asia conflict, claiming that the United States has already struck a majority of its targets and that Iran is facing urgent pressure due to its oil situation.
He added that further military action remains an option if a deal is not reached, while also noting that Iran has agreed to halt the execution of several women following a request from the US.
"...How many years was Vietnam?... I took the country out militarily in the first 4 weeks. Now what we are doing is sitting back and seeing what deal. If they dont want to make a deal, then I will finish it up militarily with the other 25% targets. We have hit 78% of the targets that we wanted to hit... It is amazing what we have done... You know who is under time pressure? They are. If they dont get their oil moving, their whole oil infrastructure is going to explode because they have no place to store it. Because they have no place to store it, if they have to stop it, something happens underground that essentially renders it in very poor shape, and you never recover fully... They have a matter of days before that event takes place," Trump said.
"I am not under any pressure whatsoever... Our ships are locked and loaded, and they are ready to go... They are very disorganised right now... 8 young women were going to be executed yesterday afternoon at 6 o clock. I asked them, call it a favour or just a moral request, that they not be executed. They came back with an answer that they will not be executing them... They are releasing 4 of them very shortly, and they are going to keep 4 of them in jail for a period of one month and release them. So they will not be executed," he said.
When asked whether Iran will have to cut off its funding to Hezbollah, Trump said, "Yeah, they will have to cut that off. That is a must."