Trump vows no nuclear weapons for Iran
In a follow-up, 8-minute prepared speech, President Donald Trump, Wednesday morning, made a televised presentation to the world, with this lead pronouncement: “As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
In the short talk at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, the president discussed the confrontation with Iran after Tehran launched air strikes on two bases housing American troops in Iraq.
Those missile attacks were in retaliation for an American drone strike on Friday in Baghdad that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, commander of Iran’s elite security and intelligence forces.
No American troops were reported killed in the nighttime attacks. The statement was Trump’s first formal effort to explain the situation with Iran since ordering the drone strike on General Suleimani.
“He should have been terminated long ago,” Trump said.
The U.S. president, who spoke in the grand foyer of the White House, announced new economic sanctions against Iran and railed against the Obama-era nuclear agreement — which Trump withdrew the United States from — during his first formal public remarks since ordering the drone strike on General Suleimani the week before.
The missiles, launched from Iran, struck Al Asad Air Base in Western Iraq and another in Erbil, in the North region of the country.
Trump has confirmed that he ordered the drone strike that killed General Suleimani.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate’s Republican leader, said he spoke to President Trump after the missile strikes and urged the administration to exercise “restraint.”
“As a superpower, we have the capacity to exercise restraint and to respond at a time and place of our choosing, if need be,” McConnell said. “I believe the president wants to avoid conflict or needless loss of life. But he’s rightly prepared to protect American lives and interests.”
The military operations exercised by the United States and Iran created a fearful wave across America. Millions of people were concerned that the world was witnessing the prelude to another prolonged war that would cause thousands of U.S. fighters to be killed and wounded in the Middle East.
Another Wednesday story – probably unrelated — reported that a Ukrainian Boeing 737800 carrying at least 170 people crashed on Wednesday shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing everyone aboard.
Although the president’s administration appears to be working to avoid casualties, the three-letter worrisome word keeps cropping up in this latest flurry of dangerous talks.