Trump tells Fox News US weighs ‘wiping Iran out’ among options
A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that if the United States launches fresh attacks, Tehran would use “new weapons with capabilities into the battle,” responding to President Donald Trump’s Sunday remarks on Fox News in which Trump said the options he was considering were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal.”
“If a new aggression takes place, we will definitely change the weapons and geography of the war,” IRGC spokesperson Hossein Mohebbi said, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. “Our targets will no longer necessarily be the same as before,” he added, with the broadcaster reporting that Iran retains targets that have not yet been struck.
Trump, in his Sunday interview with Fox News, said “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future” and framed his options as “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal.” The remarks come amid a standoff with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz, with diplomatic negotiations stalled.
According to the Guardian, traffic in the strait continues to be severely disrupted, with Iran firing on commercial ships and demanding it first approve passage along its authorized route. Iran has insisted it will not allow the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz until all its conditions have been met.
The United States, which started the war on Iran alongside Israel in February, is maintaining a counter-blockade of Iranian ports while intensifying economic pressure, the Guardian reported. The US has also fired on commercial shipping in the region and has killed Iranian civilians in its strikes, according to the outlet.
The exchange comes against the backdrop of attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The Houthis, who operate independently of Iran’s instructions, have seized territory along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, including near the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital shipping route that links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
Saudi Arabia has used the Red Sea route as an alternative for oil exports, bypassing disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, the Guardian reported. The Houthis have attacked oil facilities and other infrastructure in Saudi Arabia in response for Saudi airstrikes on Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The attacks have further disrupted energy markets, pushing up global fuel prices — including in the United States, where consumers have been hit hard.
Iran benefits from Houthi pressure on Saudi Arabia, the Guardian reported, as the Saudis are more likely in turn to put pressure on the United States to relent over Iran.
The Guardian noted that Trump is “wrestling with an unpopular war and low approval ratings ahead of November’s US midterm elections.”