US President Trump said on Thursday that if Iran is linked to the co-pilot who allegedly tried to crash an Israel-bound flight, the Islamic Republic would be struck “very hard” for the attempt on the lives of more than 180 people aboard the jet. Trump issued the warning as investigators worked to determine why the co-pilot is said to have stabbed the flight’s captain, causing the FlyDubai plane to plummet before others on board stopped the attack and landed the airliner in Saudi Arabia, per the AP. The president was asked by reporters at the White House whether he’d been briefed about any links between the co-pilot and Tehran. He said, “We’re working on it right now.”
Trump didn’t elaborate on why he suspects Iran might be involved. Asked if the US would retaliate against Tehran if it was behind the attack, Trump said, “Oh, they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry.” “You just ask them,” he added. “They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.” The co-pilot hasn’t been publicly identified. Capt. Smit Machchhar, the pilot widely praised as one of the flight’s heroes, was recovering from the attack in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi, the Indian government said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed the incident “at length” by phone. He said it seemed as though the co-pilot “was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job.” In the chaos that began about two and a half hours after takeoff, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 descended from 33,000 feet to 17,000 feet in about a minute, before making an erratic circle close to the Jordanian border and landing in the Saudi city of Tabuk, according to Flightradar24.
Trump’s remarks came as diplomatic efforts to end the war appear to have stalled. Iranian officials indicated on Wednesday that they’d received an official US response to Tehran’s latest proposal to end the seven-month war, which Trump had publicly rejected just days earlier. The officials didn’t say what the response contained and whether it was a rejection. Trump said in a Time magazine interview published on Thursday that he won’t accept proposals from Iran that “he wouldn’t have approved a year ago,” leaving open the possibility of resuming bombing after the Nov. 3 election in the US. More here.