US President Donald Trump again issued a stark warning to Iran on Thursday, during an in‑flight briefing with reporters on his return from Davos to Washington, describing a significant US military buildup in the region.
“We have a lot of ships going in that direction, just in case. We have a big flotilla going in that direction. And we'll see what happens," Trump said. “We have a big force going toward Iran. I'd rather not see anything happen, but we're watching them very closely."
Trump again said that he prevented hundreds of executions in Iran last week. “I stopped 837 hangings [last] Thursday. They would have been dead. Every one of them would have been hung. This is like from a thousand years ago," he said.
Calling Iran “an ancient culture" with “very smart people," Trump said the regime had planned to execute “837 mostly young men," but reversed course after his warning.
“I said ‘if you hang those people, you're going to be hit harder than you've ever been hit. It'll make what we did to your Iran nuclear look like peanuts.’ And an hour before this horrible thing was going to take place, they canceled it. And they actually said they canceled it. They didn't postpone it. They canceled it. So that was a good sign."
Despite the success in halting the executions, Trump emphasized that US military preparations continue. “But we have an armada, we have a massive fleet heading in that direction. And maybe we won't have to use it. We'll see."
The President also said that new economic measures targeting countries that continue to trade with Iran will go into effect soon. “If you do business with Iran, you will have a tariff of 25 percent," he said.
On Wednesday, Trump commented on the recent tensions with Iran in an interview with CNBC and said, “We hope there’s not going to be further action. They were shooting people indiscriminately on the streets and they were going to hang 837, mostly young people" after he threatened to hit them hard if they harmed protesters.
Trump has also addressed the Iranian nuclear issue and said the country should quit seeking nuclear weapons. “They gotta stop with the nuclear."
A day earlier, Trump warned that the US would respond forcefully if Iran kills protesters or acts on assassination threats against him.
In an interview with NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich, Trump was asked about reports that Iranian authorities are still burning thousands of protesters alive and about the assassination threat against him over the weekend.
“Well, they shouldn't be doing it, but I've left notification: Anything ever happens, the whole country is going to get blown up," Trump said. “But I have very firm instructions: Anything happens, they're going to wipe them off the face of this earth."