WASHINGTON (Agencies) – US President Donald Trump on Sunday said that indirect talks between US and Iran via Pakistan "emissaries" were progressing well. “A deal could be made fairly quickly,” he said.
Donald Trump has told the Financial Times he could "take the oil in Iran" and possibly seize the country's major fuel hub of Kharg Island.
"To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” he said.
Trump suggested the move could mean taking Kharg Island. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump told the FT. “It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.”
When asked about Iranian defence on the island he said: "I don’t think they have any defence. We could take it very easily."
The president's comments come as a further 3,500 US troops arrived in the Middle East as fears grow that further escalation could expose American forces to Iranian attacks.
TRUMP SAYS 'WE'VE HAD REGIME CHANGE' IN IRAN
Donald Trump has been speaking recently on Air Force One, where he says the US believes it has achieved regime change in Iran, echoing comments made last week on Fox news, where he said, "You could really say we have regime change because they have been killed."
Speaking to reporters on board the plane, he says: "But we've had regime change if you look already because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before, it's a whole different group of people, so I would consider that regime change, and frankly they've been very reasonable.
"So I think we've had regime change, I mean you can't do much better than that.
"The regime that was really bad, really evil ... the second was appointed, and they're all gone, they're all dead, other than one who may have a little life in him," Trump says, citing the number of Iranian leaders killed in the month-long war.
He also says he believes Iran is likely to make a deal with the US.
"I think we'll make a deal with them, pretty sure, but it's possible we won't," he says.
"You never know with Iran, because we negotiate with them and then we have to blow them up," he adds.