President-elect Donald Trump isn’t ruling out the possibility of a war against Iran during his second term, saying in a recent interview that “anything can happen.”
Trump sat for a 65-minute interview with TIME magazine, which has named him its “Person of the Year,” and was asked about the chances of a war with Iran under his new administration, eliciting the response after a pause, the magazine said.
The president-elect was targeted by Iranians in an assassination plot during the presidential campaign, the magazine noted, and the Iranian regime has been weakened by the conflicts in Lebanon and Gaza and now the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s leadership in Syria.
While Trump didn’t take war with Iran off the table, he made clear that he wants the wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas to end. He told TIME that the situation in the Middle East is “an easier problem to handle than what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”
“The numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering. It’s crazy what’s taking place,” said Trump, who criticized Kyiv’s firing of U.S.-made missiles into Russian territory in November after President Joe Biden eased restrictions on their use.
“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia. Why are we doing that?” he said. “We’re just escalating this war and making it worse.”
According to TIME, Trump said he would use U.S. support for Ukraine as leverage against Russia in trying to negotiate an end to the war.
“I want to reach an agreement, and the only way you’re going to reach an agreement is not to abandon,” he said.
