US could knock out Iran power in hour: Trump

Washington, March 12 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) US President Donald Trump said the United States could destroy Iran’s electricity infrastructure within an hour if it chose to escalate the conflict, while also revealing that authorities were investigating a possible Iranian revenge plot involving drones launched from a boat off the California coast.

Trump made the remarks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews after returning from a political trip to Kentucky and Ohio, offering a blunt assessment of the ongoing war with Iran and the risks of retaliation.

Asked about a law-enforcement bulletin warning of a possible drone attack launched from a boat off the California coast, Trump said the matter was under investigation.

“That’s being investigated, but you have a lot of things happening, and all we can do is take them as they come,” he said.

Trump also warned that the United States retained the capability to inflict devastating damage on Iran’s infrastructure if the conflict escalated further, though he suggested Washington preferred not to pursue that option.

“We could take apart their electric capacity within one hour. And it would take them 25 years to rebuild it,” Trump said. “So ideally we’re not going to be doing that.”

The president portrayed Iran’s military position as severely weakened following US operations.

“Iran is being absolutely decimated. That’s all I can say,” he said, adding that the war was being conducted “as well as anybody has ever seen.”

Trump said several foreign governments had privately expressed support for the US campaign.

“Other countries telling me too, big countries, powerful countries. They said they’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “And they also agree with what I’m doing.”

He also claimed Iranian military capabilities had been largely dismantled.

“They’ve got no navy. They’ve got no air force. They’ve got no anti-air traffic, anything. They have no systems of control. We’re just riding free range over that country,” Trump said.

According to the president, US forces had already neutralised much of Iran’s naval capability.

“We’ve knocked out all of their boats. They have some missiles, but not very many. I think we’re in very good shape,” he said.

Trump also said he had been briefed about the potential presence of Iranian sleeper cells in the United States and suggested many had entered during the previous administration’s border policies.

“I have been, and a lot of people came in through Biden with his stupid open border,” he said. “But we know where most of them are. We’ve got our eye on all of them, I think.”

Despite his assessment that Iran had been badly weakened, Trump said the timing of ending the conflict remained uncertain.

“Most people say it’s already been won. It’s just a question of when, when do we stop?” he said, adding that Washington did not want to allow Iran to “regrow.”

Trump also said the administration was preparing to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to stabilise energy markets during the conflict.

“We’re going to be doing it very quickly,” he said, referring to releasing oil from the reserve.

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