WASHINGTON(National Times)- US President Donald Trump once again predicted a swift end to the war with Iran, and a sharp drop in oil prices once the conflict concludes, even as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that military action cannot force them into submission.
“The Iran war will end very soon … Soon, as they want it to end,” Trump told reporters in Montana. “They’ll never have a nuclear weapon, and oil prices will drop like a rock.”
According to Anadolu Agency, Trump also expressed uncertainty over which Iranian officials the US was negotiating with.
“They don’t have a navy. They don’t have an air force. Their army is decimated. Their leaders are gone,” Trump said. “I should have probably left their leaders because I don’t know who the hell we’re negotiating with.”
“Iran was the bully of the Middle East,” he said, adding that the country was no longer as powerful as it had been.
Trump also claimed that US strikes had destroyed Iran’s naval fleet and rendered its military aircraft unusable. He said Iran had 159 ships and asserted that none remained operational, while also claiming that its fighter jets had been destroyed on the country’s runways.
‘Iran won’t submit to force’
Meanwhile in Tehran, President Pezeshkian warned that military action cannot force a country into submission, adding that his country “must find a way to strengthen national cohesion and unity”, Al Jazeera reported.
He said that the country was facing its most intense blockade since the 1979 Revolution, accusing the United States of seeking to provoke public protests.
“Over the 48 years since the Revolution, we have never faced such intense blockade, war and difficulties as we are facing now,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast by state television.
He accused Washington of seeking to make life difficult for Iranians to fuel public anger and trigger unrest. Pezeshkian said the US was focusing its efforts on making “the people become upset and face difficulties, and then for social protests to emerge so that they can achieve their sinister objectives”.
‘Mother Of All Bombs’
Meanwhile, the US is considering using the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb — better known by its nickname, the “Mother Of All Bombs” — against Iran if Trump decides to renew combat in the deadlocked war, CNN reported on Thursday.
The military is planning for the potential use of the weapon to target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites, according to the news outlet, which quoted officials familiar with the matter.
“The MOAB is a massive information operation type weapon that is great for huge area clearance but not much else,” a source familiar with the plans told CNN. “It is definitely not designed as a deep penetration warhead.”
Trump is trying to boost his low approval ratings ahead of November’s midterm elections, with polls showing the unpopular war in Iran and the fuel and other price rises it has caused are hurting his Republican Party.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have been at an impasse since the summer, and Washington has in recent weeks dialled back military operations in favour of economic pressure.
However, officials have raised doubts over the efficacy of the bomb if deployed, particularly its ability to destroy suspected underground nuclear sites in Iran, as well as concerns over possible civilian casualties from such a huge weapon.
