It’s small potatoes for us, not a big thing: Trump on ‘conflict’ with Iran

Washington: President Donald Trump has described the US confrontation with Iran as an intermittent “military conflict” rather than a full-scale war, claiming that Washington controls the Strait of Hormuz and has prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Trump made the remarks when asked about Vice President J.D. Vance’s refusal to describe the confrontation as a war, even after the United States resumed strikes against Iran.

“Well, I’ll tell you what, a lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” Trump told reporters.

The president said the conflict had cost the lives of 18 US service members but argued that it could not be compared with longer American wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan.

“I would say that it’s intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes,” Trump said. “We’re not fighting right now. There’s no fighting.”

When challenged over describing a confrontation in which American troops had died as “small potatoes”, Trump defended the five-month operation.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. We’ve stopped them from having,” he said.

Trump warned that the United States could conduct another strike against a location he identified as ‘Pickaxe’ if it detected renewed activity there.

“We may hit Pickaxe very soon because if there was anything going on with Pickaxe,” he said, adding that the United States was monitoring movements across Iran.

“And if anything goes bad, we hit them. We hit them hard,” Trump said.

The president claimed US forces had destroyed Iranian radar, aircraft and other equipment used to protect the Strait of Hormuz. He also said American minesweepers had removed mines from the strategic waterway and that oil shipments were passing through it.

“We control the Hormuz Strait, and we control it very strongly,” he said.

Trump went further in characterising the military operation, declaring: “We took over Venezuela and we have essentially taken over Iran.”

He said there had been no shooting for several days following the latest US strikes and claimed it would take Iran 25 years to rebuild if Washington ended the operation immediately.

“But I want to leave so that the next president doesn’t have to worry about it,” Trump said, offering no timetable for ending the confrontation.

Asked about China’s relationship with Iran, Trump said he had personally urged Chinese President Xi Jinping not to intervene.

“I said, please don’t get involved to President Xi,” Trump said. “And they’re not really involved, very little involvement by China.”

Trump noted that China receives significant oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. He said pipelines and an overland route through Syria were creating alternatives to the strategic passage.

“The Hormuz Strait is not what it used to be,” Trump said. “Pipelines are being built all over the Middle East now, so they don’t have to go through the Hormuz Strait.”

IANS