US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday night that Israel is partnering with the US to enhance security in the Strait of Hormuz.
“They're working with us," Trump said, adding that his relationship with Israel is very good and again dismissing reports about arguments with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We really get along well."
Trump also confirmed earlier reports that he is in active discussions with multiple countries on a coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
"We attacked Kharg Island, left just the one little area standing with all the oil pipes. We can do that on five minutes’ notice. We've essentially defeated Iran!" he said, adding, "Nice to have other countries police that with us. We'll help!"
The President also stated that Iran “badly" wants to negotiate a deal with the US, but added he does not believe that Iran is ready to do what needs to be done to achieve a deal.
“They want to negotiate. They want to negotiate badly. I don't think they're ready, just from what I'm hearing," he said.
“They want to negotiate badly, as they should. But I don't think they're ready to do what they have to do."
“But we're doing very well with respect to that whole situation in Iran. We are talking to other countries about working with us," he said.
Trump warned that Iran was “going to blow up the Middle East" if he hadn’t acted.
“If I didn't terminate the Obama horrible deal - the Iran nuclear deal, it's called - if I didn't terminate that in my first term, they would have already had a nuclear weapon, and they would have used it immediately upon getting it. And if I didn't send in the B-2 bombers to bomb the hell out of it and obliterate - and that's what it was, we obliterated that site and stopped all their potential nuclear. If I didn't do that, you would have had Israel and the Middle East hit by nuclear weapons."
He further added that if he hadn’t acted against Iran, “Israel would have been obliterated. I think lots of the Middle East would have been. And you saw that when they sent thousands of missiles to countries that didn't expect anything. They didn't think they were going to be involved. And yet, you look at what happened with Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar…all of a sudden, they're being barraged by missiles. These people would have used nuclear on the entire Middle East. And that was their plan, take over the whole Middle East. And it failed with the nuclear. And then they had thousands of missiles. And for the most part, largely, we've now destroyed those missiles."
On Saturday, Trump said US forces heavily damaged Iran’s key oil export hub, Kharg Island, during recent strikes, and hinted the US could strike the island again.
“We totally demolished Kharg Island. We may hit it a few more times just for fun," Trump told NBC News in an interview.
Trump said Iran is ready to negotiate a ceasefire but that he is not prepared to make a deal yet.
“Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet," he explained, adding that any terms will have to be “very solid."
On Friday, Trump did not commit to a definitive timeline for the war in Iran, telling Fox News Radio that the conflict would end when he feels it “in my bones."
Trump added that he did not expect the war “would be long," but emphasized that only he would know when it would end.
Trump expressed optimism that the conflict would end soon but acknowledged that it could continue indefinitely if necessary. He dismissed concerns about a potential munitions shortage.
“Nobody has the technology or the weapons that we have," he told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade in the interview. “We’re way ahead of schedule. Way ahead." He later assured that the US had “virtually unlimited ammunition. We’re using it, we’re using it. We can go forever."