As the Iran-US war has dragged on for over three weeks now, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said that President Donald Trump is “defanging the Iranian regime” and bringing peace to the Middle East. Track updates on Middle East conflict
“What we had was illusion of security. Imagine if this regime had another year or two to build their missile capabilities. They would have built a shield around themselves and it would have been impossible to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Bessent said during NBC’s “Meet the Press” TV show.
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“There is no prosperity without security, and what we had before was the illusion of security. Thanks to President Trump’s decisive action, our world is now a safer and more secure place,” Bessent wrote on X.
He also said that Trump is using “the only language the Iranians understand”, by threatening to destroy the country’s power plants unless Tehran fully opens the Strait of Hormuz that has been a point of contention between the two sides in this war.
He further said that Trump will take “whatever steps it takes” to achieve his goals in the war with Iran. The secretary was asked about the comment last week that Trump was considering “winding down” military operations and whether the president is now escalating the conflict.
“They are not mutually exclusive,” Bessent said. “Sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate.”
Latest in Iran-US war
Meanwhile, Iran and the US are trading war threats as Trump warned that the US will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. To this, Tehran said it would respond to any such strike with attacks on US and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets. Iranian missiles, meanwhile, struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research centre.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
