Warning that the United States may strike critical Iranian infrastructure if it chooses to do so, US President Donald Trump has said Washington will either reach a deal with Iran or “finish the job”.
Speaking about Iran on Monday (July 6), he said that the United States was prepared for both diplomatic talks and military measures.
“We are going to win one way or the other. We’re either going to make a deal, or we’re going to finish the job,” Trump said.
The US president said he preferred a negotiated settlement and did not want military action to affect ordinary Iranians.
“I’d rather make a deal because I don’t want to affect 91 million people,” he said.
Trump also claimed that the United States could target Iran’s infrastructure within a short period if military action was taken.
“We can knock down their bridges in one hour. We can knock out their energy supply, all of those big plants that they have built, big, beautiful modern plants,” he said.
He further claimed that Iran’s electricity and power generation facilities could be destroyed within hours.
“But we can knock out their electricity and power-generating plants in, I would say, a small part of an afternoon. Every plant will be gone. And they know that,” he said.
Trump’s ‘one shot’ warning to Iran’s leadership
Trump’s latest comments came days after he said the United States had the ability to eliminate Iran’s remaining leadership in “one shot” if it chose to do so.
The statement referred to senior Iranian officials who gathered during the week-long funeral events for former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli air strikes on February 28.
In an interview with Axios, he said, “They are all there. One shot (and we can take them all out), but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.”
His comments showed that Washington wanted to keep the possibility of talks open while maintaining pressure on Tehran.
Iran criticised Trump’s statements, with the Iranian Embassy in Armenia attacking both the US president and Washington in a post on X.
The embassy said Washington would never understand the grief surrounding Khamenei’s death because it “neither has a civilisation, history nor honour”.
“People can be killed, but ideals cannot. You killed Ayatollah Khamenei, but in reality, you broke a perfume bottle whose scent spread everywhere,” it stated, referring to the crowds that attended the former leader’s funeral.
Khamenei’s funeral ceremonies continue
Meanwhile, the body of Iran’s former supreme leader has arrived in Qom, according to reports from Iranian state media.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) showed footage of a helicopter near the Jamkaran Mosque in Qom province and reported that it was carrying Khamenei’s body.
The funeral procession is scheduled to continue in Qom on Tuesday (July 7) before moving to the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala for further ceremonies.
