President Trump said Monday that the US was in serious talks with what he called a “new, and more reasonable, regime” in Iran, but warned he would “completely obliterate” the country’s oil facilities, power plants and Kharg Island if a deal is not reached soon.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the United States was making “great progress” in negotiations while threatening military action if talks fail.“The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran,” said Trump in his post.“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’ This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror,’” he added.
Trump said the US had so far deliberately avoided hitting those sites, even as the war showed no sign of slowing.On the ground Monday, Tehran struck a key water and electrical plant in Kuwait, while an oil refinery in Israel also came under attack. Israel and the US responded with a new wave of strikes on Iran.In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump had said his preference would be to “take the oil in Iran” — a move that would require seizing Kharg Island, the terminal through which nearly all of Iran’s oil exports pass.“Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t,” he continued. “We have a lot of options.”Trump also said the US still had about 3,000 targets it would like to hit in Iran, while adding, “A deal could be made fairly quickly.”Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday, Trump said the U.S. was negotiating “directly and indirectly” with Iran.“We’re doing extremely well in that negotiation but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,” Trump said.Trump has repeatedly said talks with Iran are ongoing and progressing, even though Tehran denies that direct negotiations are taking place.Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Monday that Tehran had received a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration, but said there had been no direct negotiations with Washington so far.
