WASHINGTON/DUBAI – US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is approaching a critical decision on whether to resume major military attacks against Iran.
“I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me,” Trump told Axios in an interview. Trump is expected to meet next Tuesday with the leaders of six Gulf countries — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman — on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the next phase of the conflict.
“I want to find out where they are and how they are doing. We have been very protective of them,” Trump said of the six countries.
Earlier, Trump said that Iran has reached out directly to Washington and wants to make a deal, as he described the current state of the war as nearing its conclusion. Asked how he would describe what phase of the war the US is in, Trump said: “Hopefully we are towards the end of the war.”
“They want to make a deal, and we’ll see how that works out,” he told reporters upon landing in the state of North Carolina on Wednesday evening.
The remarks came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US over the Strait of Hormuz, despite a memorandum signed in June envisioning a deal to reopen the strategic waterway as a prelude to a wider peace agreement.
The US and Israel launched large-scale attacks on Iran in February, targeting government buildings, military sites, missile infrastructure, and air defenses, prompting Iranian missile and drone strikes against Israel and US bases across the region.
The conflict has since expanded across the region, with diplomatic efforts continuing to end the hostilities.The US State Department says it has approved the potential sale of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom has been drawn deeper into the Middle East war.
The estimated $24.3 billion sale would include 48 of the military aircraft and 49 Pratt & Whitney engines along with communications equipment, spare parts and other support items, the department says.
“The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the military balance in the region,” it writes in a notice posted online.The EU voices its “full solidarity” with Saudi Arabia as it condemns recent strikes on the kingdom by Iran-backed Houthi fighters, including what Riyadh says was an attack targeting Islam’s holy city of Mecca.
“We urge the Houthis to cease all military action,” says a statement from EU foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni, adding “the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is unacceptable.”
One person was killed and two were injured in a drone interception in Saudi Arabia’s southwest governorate of Taif, Saudi state TV says.
The death, of a Yemeni resident, is the first announced in the kingdom this month since the Iran-backed Houthis in neighboring Yemen intensified their attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis say three children have been killed in government strikes, according to the group’s media.
“Three children were killed and several Yemeni nationals were injured in strikes by the Saudi-backed mercenaries” in the Taiz province, according to Almasirah television.
Earlier, the broadcaster said Saudi airstrikes had killed one person.
