President Trump said he is readying new strikes on Iranian infrastructure — after warning that the Islamic Republic will “have to pay the price” for taking “too long” to negotiate a peace deal.
The commander-in-chief said he is “getting close to ordering new strikes against Iranian power plants and bridges” in a phone call with Fox News’ chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Wednesday.
Trump also accused Iran in the phone call of “tapping the United States along when it comes to the negotiating process.”
It came as the president took to Truth Social to warn of retaliatory strikes against Iran following the shooting down of a US Apache helicopter on Monday near the Strait of Hormuz.
“They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price!!!” Trump wrote in a thunderous post Wednesday morning, after stating that the country’s military infrastructure and leadership were in disarray.
“Iran’s Military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their Navy and Air Force, doesn’t even exist anymore – They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The Bully of the Middle East is DEAD!!! ” he added.
In the phone call, Trump also gave a blow-by-blow account of the dramatic, “miracle” survival of the two Apache pilots following Monday’s downing.
He said an Iranian drone hit the helicopter and lodged between the two pilots, bursting into flames but not exploding.
“And these pilots very quickly, within seconds, because they’re flying very low, take the helicopter down into the sea,” Yingst explained, recalling what the president told him.
In a US military first, the pilots were reportedly rescued about two hours later by an unmanned sea drone, according to US Central Command.
The US carried out “self-defense strikes” on Iran on Tuesday evening in response to the downing of the helicopter.
Trump said he ordered strikes overnight to target runways, radar systems and air defense sites that Iran has tried to rebuild during the recent cease-fire, according to Fox News.
US forces “took out about 55% of what they [Iran] were even able to rebuild,” the outlet said, citing Trump.
Iran responded Wednesday morning with drone and missile strikes targeting military bases in Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait.
Up until Wednesday, the president had still said that efforts to reach a deal with Tehran were in their “final throes,” with a settlement possible in “two to three days.”
Iran responded on Wednesday by calling on its neighbors in the Gulf to halt the US and Israeli strikes, and warning of further attacks if they didn’t stop the two countries from using their facilities.
The country’s Foreign Ministry complained that those Middle Eastern countries have a “legal and moral responsibility … to prevent the US military and Israel from using their territory or facilities to plan, organize, execute or support hostile actions against Iran,” CBS News reported.
