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President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that Iran is “negotiating on fumes” and that the regime thought they could outwait him when it comes to reaching a deal to end the war.
Trump, speaking during a Cabinet meeting about three months after the launch of Operation Epic Fury, said Iran “very much” wants to reach an agreement.
“So far they haven’t gotten there. We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be, we will be. Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” the president warned.
“But their navy has gone, as I’ve said a thousand times, their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Everything’s gone and they’re negotiating on fumes. But we’ll see what happens. Maybe we have to go back and finish it. Maybe we don’t,” he continued.
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The president also said Iran’s economy “is in freefall” with surging inflation and money that “has no value.” He mentioned, “They’re just going back to the internet because they’re getting clobbered,” referencing reports on Tuesday that Internet access in Iran was partially being restored following a lengthy blackout.
“They thought they were going to outwait me, you know, ‘We’ll outwait him, he’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms,” Trump added.
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“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I’m doing that for the world. I’m not doing it just for us. And we’ve had great support from other nations, by the way. We don’t need it at all. But we’ve had great support from other nations,” Trump also said. “The problem is you always get the support when you don’t need it. When you need it, you don’t get the support. With Operation Epic Fury, our warriors are ensuring that the world’s number one state sponsor of terror never obtains a nuclear weapon. And they won’t.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, following Trump, that diplomacy remains the first option for resolving the war with Iran.
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“There’s an agreement to be made. We want that to be made. I think there’s been some progress and some interest. And we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress could be made,” Rubio said during the Cabinet meeting.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth added, “Whether it is through the efforts of your negotiators that they ensure that they never have a nuclear weapon, or we have to go back to the War Department to finish the job that way, we’re prepared to do that.”