US President Donald Trump has played down speculation of another round of US strikes on Iran after Monday’s midterms, saying, “I’m ready, we’re ready. We’re locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it”, Al Jazeera reports.
He has made the remarks in an interview with the Financial Times (FT), whose reporter asked about strong hints by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there would be an attack later this week.
In response, Trump has said the US had no immediate plans to strike Iran, according to the FT.
“We seem to be getting everything we want,” Trump says, referring to negotiations with Iran.
Trump has told the FT that more oil was passing through the Strait of Hormuz than before the war, and that the US blockade on Iran’s ports was stifling Tehran’s economy.
“It’s a brilliant situation,” Trump says.
Trump has declined to share any attack plans in advance, but said indirect negotiations with Iran over its roughly 440kg stockpile of enriched uranium – “nuclear dust”, as he calls it – were ongoing.
