Donald Trump has praised Iran for not shooting down a manned plane with 38 people on board when it decided to shoot down an unmanned American surveillance drone that had violated the Iranian airspace on Thursday, according to Press TV website.
“There was a plane with 38 people yesterday, did you see that? I think that's a big story. They had it in their sights and they didn't shoot it down. I think they were very wise not to do that. And we appreciate that they didn't do that. I think that was a very wise decision,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on Saturday.
The Iranian air defense shot down a US MQ-4C drone which had been flying above its territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. The Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said Friday that Iranian air defense system could have targeted an American P-8 military aircraft that was flying next to downed UAV.
Meanwhile, Trump said that the US is pressing ahead with additional sanctions on Iran with the aim of stopping the country from developing a nuclear bomb. He also warned that military actions against Tehran remains on the table.
“We’re putting additional sanctions on. They’re going on slowly and, in some cases, pretty rapidly, but additional sanctions are being put on Iran,” the US President said, without specifying what the fresh round of restrictions were, according to Russia Today.
The US increasing pressure on Tehran is “not about oil,” he insisted. “The fact is that we’re not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon. When they agree to that, they’re going to have a wealthy country and I’m going to be their best friend.”
According to RT, the US president also added that it was important to 'start over' on the Islamic Republic, and rephrased his own campaign slogan, saying “let’s make Iran great again.”
He also claimed he would be Iran's 'best friend' and that the Islamic Republic could be a 'wealthy' country if it stopped pursuing nuclear weapons despite the fact that Iran’s leadership has repeatedly expressed firm opposition to the development and use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons.
The Iran nuclear deal, from which Trump pulled the US out, was also a show of good will on Iran’s part that its nuclear program would always remain peaceful.
KI