Donald Trump signals imminent attack on Iranian nuclear site amid rising tensions
Updated ,first published
Washington: President Donald Trump blamed US partner Jordan for the deaths of at least two American soldiers when an Iranian missile hit a Jordanian air base last week, while saying an attack on Iran’s Mount Kazma nuclear facility was imminent.
The US military has announced the identities of three soldiers killed in renewed fighting, including 19-year-old Isabella Gonzales and 25-year-old Tyler Feehan, killed at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
A third soldier was missing and unidentified remains were found; Another soldier, identified as 30-year-old Michael Swinton, died during the destruction of an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle in Iraq.
Trump appeared to blame the Jordanian military for failing to stop the missile from reaching its target on Tuesday (Washington time).
“[The Iranians] “We missed something in Jordan and unfortunately this wouldn’t have happened if we had other operators,” he said.
“We have the best equipment in the world, we’ve stopped almost everything. But when you outsource your job to other people (in the US we outsource the job to other people) and sometimes things don’t turn out so well.”
Trump also gave his strongest signal yet that he would allow an attack on Iran’s Mount Kazma, a key nuclear facility buried underground near the Natanz facility that was bombed by the United States last year.
“We’re probably going to get to that area very soon, and there’s nothing they can do about it,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Normally I wouldn’t say that. I would never say that if I thought they could do something about it. But we’re going to hit that area very soon, and a very heavy blow.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Mount Kazma since the conflict in Iran revived two weeks ago after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps began firing again at ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
So far, US forces have mostly targeted coastal surveillance assets, missile and drone launch sites, command centers and air defense systems along the Iranian coastline and some other areas.
Mystery surrounds the exact purpose of Kazma Mountain. Wall StreetJournal It was reported on Tuesday that Israeli intelligence believes Iran Thousands of centrifuges were relocated – was used to enrich uranium – he sent it to tunnels deep in the mountain and forwarded it to the USA.
When asked about the report, Trump was unimpressed and said he was focused on tracking Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. “This is where it happened.”
Meanwhile, the risk of the conflict further violating global shipping has increased as at least two tankers returned to the Red Sea after Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen threatened to attack ships in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Ship tracking data from LSEG showed that the crude oil carrier Xin Long Yang made a U-turn and headed for the Suez Canal rather than trying to cross the strait to China, Reuters reported. It was carrying 2 million barrels of Saudi Arabian crude oil.
According to data, the Aframax tanker Rhodes, which loaded approximately 700 thousand barrels of Saudi crude oil to India, also made a U-turn towards Suez on Tuesday.
Gregory Brew, an Iran and oil analyst at consultancy Eurasia Group, said data showed at least five tankers carrying Saudi oil or bound for Saudi ports stopped or turned back near the strait. “Non-Saudi traffic continues apace,” he said.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have largely ignored the conflict over the past five months, but on Monday declared a blockade of Saudi Arabia and warned shipping companies that ships using Saudi ports could be targeted.
Trump was stunned by the potential tension. “If something like this happens, we will handle it. We have done this before with the Houthis,” he said.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington that the cost of the war against Iran had risen by $8 billion to $37.5 billion ($53.16 billion) since the last public estimate.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the president’s top military adviser, has faced questions about whether the United States deliberately targeted desalination plants in Iran, possibly violating international law.
Iranian media reported that the Bonji desalination plant, which provided water to more than 10,000 people in 20 villages, was destroyed by a US missile.
“I am not aware of these being specific targets, nor am I aware of these reports,” Caine said. He tried to find out what happened but remained confident that U.S. forces must act ethically at all times.
via Reuters
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
