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President Donald Trump signs a proclamation from the Oval Office at the White House.
by MATT GALKA | The National News Desk
WASHINGTON (TNND) — After two days of strikes targeting Iran, President Trump warned Thursday that more military action could be coming, even as he later said he was calling off additional strikes because a peace deal appeared close.
Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday morning that more military strikes against Iran were on the way. He also floated seizing Iranian land.
“My preference has always been Kharg Island. I don’t know if America has the stomach for it, to be honest with you. You’d make a fortune, but I don’t think America has a stomach. I think they’d like to see us come home, but we did it with Venezuela," he told Fox News Thursday morning.
By Thursday afternoon, Trump said he was cancelling the strikes and suggested a peace deal was nearing completion. In a post, he wrote in part that “discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership” and that “Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved.”
The President suggested something could be signed as early as this weekend, possibly in Europe, in an event he wouldn't be able to attend. He said the Vice President would be there.
Iranian state media framed the announcement of the cancelled strikes as Trump again backing down, pointing out that he has repeatedly said a deal was close. Iran hadn't officially confirmed a deal as of Thursday afternoon.
Kharg Island sits at the center of Iran’s oil economy and is the main place where Iran’s oil exports flow through. Taking it would likely require American boots on the ground, an idea that drew mixed reactions on Capitol Hill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed the threat.
“I think he’s communicating directly with our adversaries over there. I would not, I would not put too much stock in the details of that right now," he said.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., was one of the members of Congress meeting the announcement with some skepticism.
“I’m worried about the move on Kharg Island. I’m not saying the president’s wrong. But this is this is how it started in Vietnam. Committing troops is a, it’s a very, very, very dramatic step," he said.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already impacted global energy prices. The U.S. has had a naval blockade of Iranian ports and ships there in place for nearly two months, and Trump said the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would continue until a deal was finalized.
The threat against Kharg Island prompted a warning from Iran’s speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who wrote on X, “Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will reset the entire board for the worse, explode energy infrastructure and markets and create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”
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