FLORIDA(National times)- United States President Donald Trump has warned Hamas of dire consequences if it fails to disarm, while also threatening to \u201cquickly eradicate\u201d and \u201cknock down\u201d any attempts by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme. Trump issued the threats on Monday, after holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Their discussions focused on advancing the ceasefire deal Trump brokered in Gaza, as well as addressing Israeli concerns over Iran, and over Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump said that Israel has been doing its part in the Gaza ceasefire, despite launching near-daily strikes that have killed at least 400 people, and warned Hamas to live up to its side of the agreement. \u201cWe talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament, and they\u2019re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we\u2019ll see how that works out,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they don\u2019t disarm, as they agreed to do \u2013 they agreed to it \u2013 and then there\u2019ll be hell to pay for them. And we don\u2019t want that.\u201d There was no immediate comment from Hamas. The first phase of the ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10, calls for the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas for Palestinian detainees and prisoners held by Israel, as well as an increase in aid and a partial Israeli withdrawal in Gaza. Hamas is yet to return the body of one Israeli captive, while Israel, in addition to continued deadly attacks, has restricted the entry of aid and delayed the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. But Trump heaped the blame solely on Hamas for the delay in moving towards the second phase of the truce. The armed group has previously said it will not give up its weapons as long as Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory continues, but was willing to set them aside and offered a long truce of seven to 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
STRIKES ON IRAN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump went on to suggest that Iran may be working to restore its nuclear programme after the US air strikes in June damaged three Iranian nuclear facilities. \u201cNow I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we\u2019re going to have to knock them down,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ll knock them down. We\u2019ll knock the hell out of them. But, hopefully, that\u2019s not happening.\u201d If Iran was trying to build up its nuclear programme again, \u201cwe\u2019re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup\u201d, he said. The consequences of such a move could be \u201cmore powerful than the last time\u201d. \u201cWe know exactly where they\u2019re going, what they\u2019re doing, and I hope they\u2019re not doing it, because we don\u2019t want to waste fuel on a B-2,\u201d Trump added, referring to the bomber used in the earlier strike. \u201cIt\u2019s a 37-hour trip both ways. I don\u2019t want to waste a lot of fuel.\u201d The US president declined to offer evidence to support his allegations against Iran. But he added that the US and Israel have been \u201cextremely victorious\u201d against their enemies, and that if the US \u201cdidn\u2019t beat Iran, you wouldn\u2019t have had peace in the Middle East\u201d. When asked whether the US would back an Israeli attack on Iran\u2019s missile programme, Trump said, \u201cIf they will continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear? Fast. OK? One will be: Yes, absolutely. The other is: We\u2019ll do it immediately.\u201d There was no immediate comment from Iran. Tehran has denied seeking to build a nuclear weapon and ruled out negotiating over its missile programme, which is at the core of its defence strategy. During the conflict in June, sometimes referred to as the 12-day war, Iran fired hundreds of missiles in response to Israeli attacks that killed the country\u2019s top generals, several nuclear scientists and hundreds of civilians. US Senator Lindsey Graham, an Iran hawk who is close to Trump, visited Israel this month and repeated the Netanyahu government\u2019s talking points about the dangers of Iran\u2019s long-range missiles. He warned that Iran is producing them \u201cin very high numbers\u201d. \u201cWe cannot allow Iran to produce ballistic missiles because they could overwhelm the Iron Dome,\u201d he told The Jerusalem Post, referring to Israel\u2019s air defence system. \u201cIt\u2019s a major threat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018MUCH HARSHER\u2019 RESPONSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, Trump said Iran should \u201cmake a deal\u201d with the US. \u201cIf they want to make a deal, that\u2019s much smarter,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou know, they could have made a deal the last time, before we went through a big attack on them, and they decided not to make the deal. They wish they made that deal.\u201d While the US has brokered three ceasefires involving its longtime ally \u2013 between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, and Israel and Lebanon \u2013 Netanyahu is wary of Israel\u2019s foes rebuilding their forces after they were considerably weakened in multiple wars. Overall, Trump\u2019s comments suggest he remains firmly in Netanyahu\u2019s camp, even as some aides have privately questioned the Israeli leader\u2019s commitment to the Gaza ceasefire. Trump\u2019s comments also suggest that he is willing to risk additional hostilities related to Gaza and Iran, even as the US president has taken credit for resolving Israel\u2019s wars in both places. The sabre-rattling on Monday also came weeks after the Trump administration released a National Security Strategy that called for the US to shift its foreign policy resources away from the Middle East and instead focus on the Western Hemisphere. But advocates of the strategy warn that another episode of attacking Iran may escalate into a longer, broader war. In June, Iran responded to the US strikes with a missile attack against a US airbase in Qatar, which did not result in any US casualties. Trump announced a ceasefire to end the war shortly after the Iranian response. Trita Parsi, the executive vice president at the Quincy Institute, a US think tank that promotes diplomacy, told Al Jazeera last week that the Iranian response would be \u201cmuch harsher\u201d if the country is attacked again. \u201cThe Iranians understand that, unless they strike back hard and dispel the view that Iran is a country that you can bomb every six months, unless they do that, Iran will become a country that Israel will bomb every six months,\u201d Parsi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FLORIDA(National times)- United States President Donald Trump has warned Hamas of dire consequences if it fails to disarm, while also threatening to \u201cquickly eradicate\u201d and \u201cknock down\u201d any attempts by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme. Trump issued the threats on Monday, after holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n