Wed 08 January 2019:
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran “appears to be standing down” less than a day after the country attacked Iraqi bases housing U.S. forces.
But the U.S. is continuing to look at its options, and will “immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the Iranian regime,” Trump said.
But he suggested that the U.S. is open to negotiations with Tehran. “We must all work together toward making a deal with Iran that makes the world a safer and more peaceful place,” Trump said. He urged other world powers to break away from the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran and work out a new deal.
The president, speaking from the grand foyer of the White House, said that no Americans were harmed in Iran’s Tuesday night attacks on the Iraqi bases, which came in retaliation to the U.S. killing Iranian military leader Gen. Qasem Soleimani last week.
Trump defended his administration’s decision Soleimani, saying in the speech that the general’s “hands were drenched in both American and Iranian blood” and “he should have been terminated long ago.”
Trump was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the top military officers from the nation’s sister services. He spoke for about 10 minutes and took no questions.
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