President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the US would again hit Iran “very hard”, escalating his public threats as he pressures Tehran to sign a deal.
“We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today,” Trump said in televised comments. “We’re going to attack them and attack them very hard.”
Trump said Iran “should sign the deal” and said the US wants a deal “that makes sense and works.”
“We’ll see what happens with the deal,” Trump said.
Trump’s comments come after Truth Social warned that Iran was too late to negotiate amid rising military tensions between Washington and Tehran and will “pay a price.”
“Iran’s military is a complete mess,” Trump said. wrote Wednesday morning. “Most of it, such as their navy and air force, no longer exists – they are completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action.”
Oil prices rose and U.S. stock futures fell after Trump’s comments, with U.S. crude rising nearly 2% to $89.72 a barrel and Brent up 1.3% to $92.74. Dow Jones Industrial Average It has fallen more than 600 points since the comments.
Tensions rose in the Middle East on Tuesday after the US military launched strikes against Iran, which US Central Command said were “in response to yesterday’s downing of a US military Apache helicopter.”
Iran has not directly taken responsibility for downing the helicopter. Iranian state broadcaster IRIB reported that no offensive military operations had been conducted in the strait in the past 24 hours.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
