Washington: US President Donald Trump declined to reveal his next move on Iran, saying the situation was “working out very well” and predicting that the conflict would not last long.
Trump made the remarks while speaking to reporters at the White House before departing aboard Marine One.
Asked what his next step regarding Iran would be, Trump initially suggested that disclosing it would make major news.
“That’s very, oh, it’s — well, if I told you, you’d have a major story, right? But you’ll see. Working out very well. Iran is not doing well,” Trump said.
The President did not elaborate on what action his administration was considering or provide a timetable.
But later in the same exchange with reporters, Trump again referred to Iran while discussing global energy supplies and his efforts to get Europe to put more diesel into the market.
Trump predicted that oil prices would return to earlier levels once the situation involving Iran ended.
“We’re gonna have a lot of oil very shortly, as soon as Iran ends, which won’t be long,” Trump said.
“Not gonna be long, and you’re gonna have oil go down to the price it was before, maybe even lower than I got it at the beginning.”
Trump’s comments came as reporters questioned him about the availability of diesel and whether his administration was considering restrictions on US exports.
The President said he had asked Europe to put more diesel into the global market.
“Europe has a lot of diesel, and they’re, they’re gonna be making a major world contribution, and so are we,” Trump said.
“And we’re not gonna be, uh, doing the export ban. We’re gonna be doing what we’re supposed to do.”
Trump later made clear that he did not consider a US diesel export ban to have been a serious option.
“No, no. We were never gonna do it. I don’t think we ever, but basically, Europe was great because they’re putting a lot of diesel oil out there. They have diesel,” he said.
Trump said Europe was in a position to make more fuel available because of the region’s diesel consumption.
“They use diesel disproportionately more than most, and they did a great thing,” he said.
The President also said Washington continued to have a good relationship with Europe and indicated that European countries had responded positively to his request to release more diesel into the market.
“Oh, we have a very good relationship with Europe, and, uh, they wanted to do it because they have a lot of diesel,” Trump said.
“I said, ‘It would be great if you put it out in the market.’”
Trump did not provide further details about what he meant when he said Iran was “not doing well” or what developments he expected before oil prices could return to their earlier levels.
(IANS)
