Aug 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of being “devious negotiators” in an interview released late on Monday and described some of his current options in the war — “just bop along” and let Tehran fail economically or hit them “really, really hard.”
“I’m sort of negotiating,” Trump told Real America’s Voice in a phone interview. “They’re very devious negotiators.”
Since the conflict began in late February, Trump has repeatedly oscillated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent. Pakistan said on Tuesday the U.S. and Iran were close to “some sort” of deal, and Qatar said talks on managing the Strait of Hormuz were at an advanced stage, despite reports of new attacks on shipping in regional waters.
Trump described one of his possible strategies as: “Do what I’m doing now: just bop along and look how bad they’re doing.”
“Economically, they are a mess. They can’t borrow money. We control their money, what they had, which is a lot. They had a lot, and we have total control of it. I’m their banker,” he said, referring to frozen Iranian assets.
Another option would be to “Hit them really, really hard,” Trump said.
Trump also shrugged off concerns of low munitions, saying the U.S. was “building them like crazy” and cast blame on his predecessor, former U.S. President Joe Biden.
Reuters reported last week that the U.S. Army has used up much of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during the war, raising concerns about the military’s readiness for future conflicts.
“We’re fine with munitions… But the reason it would be lower, and we’re building them like crazy, but the reason it’s low is because he (Biden) gave $300 billion worth to Ukraine,” Trump said.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; editing by Michelle Nichols )
