US President Donald Trump said Thursday he is close to launching massive attacks on Iran as oil hit its highest price in two months and Tehran-backed Houthi rebels opened a new front in the Red Sea.
‘I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before,’ the President told Axios.
‘I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.’
Trump added that Iran wanted a deal but had not yet felt ‘enough pain’ to properly negotiate. He did not say when he would finalize his decision.
As it is, the Pentagon has flown a B-1 bomber over the region for the first time since the ceasefire collapsed and surged extra special operations forces into the area.
Trump added that Israel ‘would join in two minutes if I ask them to,’ but that there would be ‘consequences’ to it joining the strikes, but he insisted their help was not needed.
The President told Axios ‘relations with Bibi [Netanyahu] are very good’ and he would meet with the Israeli PM if he travels to Washington next week for Senator Lindsey Graham’s wake.
Oil surged past $100 a barrel for the first time since May 26 as Houthi rebels claimed two attacks on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, threatening fresh disruption to the global energy supply chain.
The attacks could cut off Saudi Arabia’s alternative export route, analysts warn.
