President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would blow up “the whole country” of Iran if it does not agree to the U.S. peace proposal, marking a major escalation of his threats toward the regime.
“If [the deal] happens, it happens. And if it doesn’t, we’re blowing up the whole country,” he told NBC News. When pressed on civilian infrastructure, the president said, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
The president said that “very little” is off the table when pressed on whether anything was off limits in looming threatened strikes. Trump’s support for targeting all of Iran marks a significant escalation of warnings he previously issued to the country, when he said the U.S. would obliterate its energy infrastructure if it did not make a deal, and open the Strait of Hormuz.
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Trump set a 10-day deadline for Iran to agree to the deal in late March that was set to expire on Monday at 8 p.m. But the president moved that deadline back a day, saying he would authorize sweeping strikes against Iran on Tuesday if it does not make a deal, suggesting in another post that the strikes would take place on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
The United States and Israel launched initial strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, citing long-standing concerns about the regime’s nuclear program. The decision was made after the U.S. was told by Iranian officials that it had enough enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear bombs within 10 days, according to Trump’s team. Washington has been involved in peace talks with Iran seeking to resolve concerns and end the conflict since around March 21.
Democrats, and some isolationist-leaning Republicans, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), have expressed fear that the war could turn into a costly and lengthy conflict comparable to the U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those questions continued on Sunday, as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) vowed to oppose any new funding for the Iran war. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) accused Trump of getting the U.S. “involved in this reckless war of choice without any plan, any strategic objectives, and no clear exit strategy.”
The U.S. military has struck major blows to Iran’s military capabilities, decimating top tiers of its leadership, and taking out swaths of the country’s air force and navy. Still, the regime has some military capabilities, as demonstrated last week when it shot down two U.S. military aircraft over Iranian territory. All three military personnel were rescued, including an injured weapons system officer who hid in the Iranian mountains for over a day before a rescue operation aided by the CIA managed to save him on Saturday.
Jeffries praised the “heroic” rescue during an ABC News interview Sunday. But he said the “reckless and costly war of choice is increasing the cost of living for everyday Americans” and vowed to oppose any plans to put troops in Iran. Trump has not announced plans to do so, but some experts believe ground troops, at least in a limited operation, would be necessary to retrieve Iran’s uranium supply and definitively crush its nuclear program.
Trump has repeatedly pushed back deadlines he has given for Iran to come to the table. When pressed on Sunday on whether he would do so again, the president said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“They have plenty of time to make a deal. If they don’t want to make a deal — their whole country is gone,” he told NBC.
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The president had previously said on Wednesday that the U.S. was going to hit Iran “extremely hard” for another two or three weeks.
“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump told the nation during a prime-time speech. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”
