Trump on Iran: 'Locked and Loaded' but No Strike Planned

Asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suggestions that another attack on Iran could come later this week, US President Donald Trump told the Financial Times on Tuesday that Washington has no immediate plans for new strikes. "I'm ready, we're ready. We're locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it," Trump said.

The interview was conducted before results from the US midterm elections started coming in. Trump called Washington's position "a brilliant situation" and said the United States was achieving its aims. "We seem to be getting everything we want," he said.

Trump dismissed the notion that active fighting is ongoing. "We're not really in a war, because we hit them with the B2 bombers and wiped out their nuclear potential incapacity. We then hit them again, Epic Fury, etc... But if you think about it, we haven't really had a war with them in a long time, six months, maybe more," he said. He added that he did not see the situation as comparable to Ukraine or the two world wars.

Indirect negotiations with Tehran are continuing, Trump confirmed. The talks cover Iran's stockpile of about 1,000 pounds of enriched uranium, which he described as "nuclear dust." "Even though it's under hundreds of tons of rock, I would say that I'm not happy that it will be there," Trump said. "So it's one of the things that we do talk to them about."

USA and Israel vs Iran (Photo: Shutterstock )

In a phone call with The Wall Street Journal later on Tuesday, Trump conceded that Iran played a role in Republican midterm losses, but said he had no regrets. "Iran was a piece of it," he said. "I don't think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again."

He acknowledged that rising oil prices had cost Republicans politically, though he named his own absence from the ballot as the bigger factor. "The biggest issue is that I wasn't on the ballot," he said. Trump also recognized that many people blame Iran for swings in oil prices, but said he remains "totally convinced" his decision was right for the long-term benefit of the United States and the world.

Appearing on Fox & Friends, Trump said voters generally supported his moves against Iran but were unwilling to absorb the short-term hit of higher gasoline prices. "I understand that. I don't agree with it. Too bad," he said. In another Fox News interview, he said "a lot of people would like to do the heavy hit" on Iran, adding that "the only thing I can tell you with certainty, [Iran] will never have a nuclear weapon."

On Monday, Trump said Iran wants a deal "very badly" and that its economy is "cratering because of us." He said the US military had taken out some 159 Iranian ships. In an interview with Sean Hannity, he warned that Washington could hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility "in one hour" if necessary.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Monday, said he and Trump "feel pretty good about the prospects" for a negotiated settlement, and that the president "retains kinetic options" alongside non-kinetic ones. Vance said no deadline had been set before strikes would resume, and that Washington's priority is making sure Iran does not rebuild its nuclear program.

On Monday, Trump answered with a single "No" when asked whether he would strike Iran after the midterms, and credited expectations of a deal for a fall of nearly $10 a barrel in oil prices. On Wednesday, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf claimed that the confrontation with Iran was behind the Republican midterm defeat.