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US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) said a possible operation on Kharg Island would be off the table if the agreement with Iran is signed.
Trump was responding to a query that asked whether the Kharg Island operation was off the table. Responding to this at the Oval Office, he said, "Now it would be if we signed this agreement, it would be. They weren't so thrilled when they heard that that's what I was put in. I just don't think I like it." He noted that US forces have already moved ships and transported millions of barrels of oil across the Strait in recent months. "The Strait is going to open immediately. This signing maybe it'll happen on Saturday or Monday. We think it's going to go pretty quickly. I don't want to say a deadline, because if I say a deadline, you'll say, Oh, he didn't meet the deadline. It's going to get signed. And the strait is open. But the strait has been open for a number of months already, and you just didn't know about it. I just announced yesterday that we bought a lot of ships across and millions, hundreds of millions of barrels of oil were brought across," Trump remarked. The US president said Iran's willingness to pursue diplomacy follows recent military pressure. He added that while much of Iran's leadership and infrastructure has been targeted, he believes the remaining leadership is rational and ready to make a deal. "The level of enthusiasm beginning at that. We were hitting them very hard for the last three days. We're going to hit them even harder tonight. They knew that. We told them exactly what we were going to do... they had no Navy, no Air Force, no weapons of detection. They have nothing... we won this war militarily very early on. The only thing we didn't win was the fake news," he said. He added, "They've got a chance to build a country. Their country is largely demolished... Everything is gone. Their leadership is gone many times over. Even many people from this leadership is gone. But we found them to be rational, and they're going to make a deal." Further, Trump praised Venezuela, highlighting the flow of millions of barrels of oil from the country to Houston. "Look at Venezuela, how well that's worked out. We paid for that war many times... millions of barrels of oil from Venezuela going to Houston, and we're working great with the Venezuelan government. Couldn't be better. It's real good relationship... Venezuela has been amazing. This is a larger situation... We go to wars, we end up with just blasting a lot of people and we come home. Nothing happens," Trump said. (ANI)
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