The President of the United States, Donald Trump, assured this Monday that there are “advances” to put an end to the war launched against Iran, although he defended the continuation of the naval blockade over the country in the Strait of Hormuz.
Speaking to the media at a briefing from the White House, Trump said that “Military action doesn’t seem like something that’s very necessary, but we have it loaded and ready, prepared to use it if there’s a reason. There’s progress toward the end of this conflict. I think it’s going to end quite soon.”
The president stressed that Washington has moved a third aircraft carrier to the area “just in case.” “We have many,” he said, before emphasizing that “They are loaded and ready and I hope we won’t have to” use them.
Trump made these statements at a press conference where he was accompanied by the CEO of the mixed martial arts company UFC, Dana White, whom he asked to take the position of White House press secretary. White has been giving the floor to reporters and has answered several questions, without clarifying whether he will accept the president’s offer.
At one point during the briefing, a journalist asked him whether he had said “no” to the president’s proposal. White settled the matter with the phrase “I never tell the president no to anything.”
Regarding Iran, Trump also shared this Monday a message on social media in which he says that Washington’s Arab partners have asked him to maintain the “naval blockade” against Tehran.
In that message, he indicated that “Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and others prefer the ‘statu quo,’ in other words, that the Greatest Naval Blockade in History and the new Operation Iron Door continue.”
The president also reiterated that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon and that’s not negotiable.” He stressed that the United States “has them loaded and ready (...), but I think it seems quite unlikely.”