Following a “surprise” attack by Iran on a US base in Jordan, President Donald Trump threatened the country to respond “strongly.”
It was in an interview with Fox News that the president reiterated on several occasions that “He was going to beat up” Iran and that “he will hit them hard.”
“We’re going to fucking beat them. We’re going to hit them hard. They’re going to take a beating,” Donald Trump said repeatedly.
The Republican explained that US forces had only a few minutes to intercept and shoot down the ballistic missiles launched by Tehran, and added that he reviewed a video showing how the military communicated coordinates in real time during the operation.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place on a day of renewed crossfire, in which the US and Saudi Arabia carried out precision bombings against positions of terrorist groups aligned with Iran in eastern Iraq.
Washington thus responded to more than thirty drone attacks directed by the IRGC against US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure in the last 72 hours, according to the US Central Command (Centcom).
Trump indicated this Wednesday to Fox News that the joint attacks by the US and Saudi Arabia against Iraq’s Shiite militias allied with Iran were previously coordinated with the Iraqi government.
The US president described these groups as “cancer” and warned that he was studying new actions against them.
These attacks raise the temperature and keep negotiations in suspense in the war, which is now more than five months old, after Trump ordered a pause in hostilities to advance a stalled peace dialogue.
Read also: What will happen to the Strait of Hormuz after Trump’s new negotiations with Iran?