U.S. President Donald Trump told PBS that Iran wants “to make a deal but they’re not ready to make a deal in my opinion,” explaining that he “left a lot of infrastructure” to “hold off” on rebuilding and trauma.
“Kharg Island is out of commission except for the pipes, which I left. I didn’t want to hit the pipes because, you know, it’s years of work to put them together,” he said, following what he described on Saturday as “one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East.”
Kharg Island, about 21 miles off Iran’s coast, is the primary terminal through which nearly all of its oil exports pass. Anti-Iran hawks have urged Trump in recent days to seize control of the island and Iran’s oil exports, similar to actions in Venezuela earlier this year.
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This handout image, taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) and captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, shows a view of Iran’s Kharg Island, which hosts the country’s main crude export terminal, last week. Credit: AFP/
This handout image, taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) and captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, shows a view of Iran’s Kharg Island, which hosts the country’s main crude export terminal, last week. Credit: AFP/
“I left a lot of infrastructure in Tehran because if you did it, it’s years of building…I could knock out the electric plants in one hour… but if I do that, that’s years of rebuilding and it’s trauma. So I’m trying to hold off on that kind of thing,” Trump added.
He said he would “strike it again, yeah, I told them openly, I’ll knock the hell out of it.” Trump said he purposefully left “100 yards” around “anything having to do with oil” there. “Didn’t even come close.”
On Saturday Trump said, “I have chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island. However, should Iran, or anyone else, do anything to interfere with the Free and Safe Passage of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision.”