Trump says other nations will assist US in naval blockade against Iran

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said other countries will be assisting the US in a naval blockade against Iran after Saturday’s talks with Tehran in the Pakistani capital Islamabad failed to produce a deal to end weeks of war in the Middle East.

In an interview with Fox News, Trump said: “Well, we’re going to be blockading. It’ll take a little while, but it’ll be effective pretty soon.”

“We think that numerous countries are going to be helping us with this also, but we’re putting on a complete blockade. We’re not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don’t like,” Trump said.

The blockade would “take a little while, but it’ll be effective pretty soon,” and that Gulf states are already helping with the effort, without specifying the countries, he added.

The US president added that Iran can say that “We’ll drop one mine, two mines, 10 mines. And that will if you have a ship that cost a billion dollars, you say, Well, you know, I prefer not getting whacked by a mine, losing my ship or damaging it badly, at least,” calling it an “extortion.”

He said the US and other countries will be sending minesweepers to the Strait of Hormuz to clear mines left by Iran.

“We have minesweepers there. Now we have highly sophisticated underwater minesweepers, which are the latest and the greatest, but we’re also bringing in more traditional minesweepers. And so I understand … the UK and a couple of other countries are sending mine sweepers,” he said.

Trump said he was “very disappointed with NATO,” noting: “Now they want to come and they want to help with the strait and it won’t take long to clean it up. Clean it out, so we’re going to clean out the straits, and they’ll be able to use the strait in not too long a distance.”

He described Saturday’s negotiation with Iran in Islamabad as a “really a good meeting,” with both sides agreeing on “95%” of issues, except “one problem … they want to have nuclear weapons.”

“We had a very intensive negotiation, and towards the end, it got very friendly, and we got just about every point we needed, except for the fact that they refused to give up their nuclear ambition,” he said.

“On the important issue, they want to have nuclear weapons. They’re not going to have nuclear weapons.”

Trump said he went on “maximum campaign” against Iran. “We went out the whole country, essentially. The only thing left, really, is their water, which would be very devastating to it.”

He reiterated his threats of targeting Iran’s infrastructure such as power plants, bridges, and desalination and water plants, adding that “we still have other things” for possible targets in Iran.

Trump said that he will impose 50% tariff on China, as well as other countries, if they send weapons to Iran.

“But if we catch them doing that, they get a 50% tariff, which is a staggering-that’s a staggering amount,” he said.

He added that amid US pressure on Iran, China could buy oil and gas from the US and Venezuela.

“As far as China is concerned, China can send their ships to us. China can send their ships to Venezuela. We told them … buy from Venezuela.”

He said that he has “a very good relationship with China,” adding that he “put 100% tariff on all Chinese cars coming in, and that’s destroying Europe.”

“They’re destroying Europe because they’re taking away so much business from Mercedes and BMW, etc. And we don’t have any Chinese cars in our country because they would have destroyed General Motors, Ford.”