'I'm not happy with Israel or Iran', says Trump

FRANCE 24 English

Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs,

00:04the likes of which I've never seen before.

00:06The biggest load that we've seen.

00:08I'm not happy with Israel.

00:09You know, when I say, okay, now you have 12 hours,

00:12you don't go out in the first hour and just drop everything you have on them.

00:16So I'm not happy with them.

00:18I'm not happy with Iran either.

00:19We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard

00:24that they don't know what the f**k they're doing.

00:27Do you understand that?

00:28We're going to talk more about this with France 24's James André,

00:31who joins me on the set of very strong words there from the U.S. President Donald Trump.

00:35Yeah, absolutely.

00:36Donald Trump saying that basically both countries broke that ceasefire deal

00:40and especially showing a lot of frustration with the Israelis,

00:47saying that he considered the fact that basically there was a time frame.

00:50Once again, we've not had the details of how this ceasefire is supposed to work.

00:53He basically said they had 12 hours and Israel went out and bombed Iran

00:58in a way that he says he'd never seen before and that it was extremely violent.

01:03So he said he was very, very, very frustrated with Israel.

01:06And what we've learned in the wake of what happened just there

01:09is that there was a phone call between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu

01:12who with Donald Trump saying you must turn those bombers away and, you know,

01:17stop this bombing campaign you've just launched against Iran

01:21and basically Benjamin Netanyahu saying that it was too late to do that

01:24and that there needed to be a response for the Iranian breach in the ceasefire.

01:29So right now it's very unclear whether those planes have turned around or not.

01:35But what we have heard from the White House is that basically Donald Trump

01:40used some very, very strong words with Netanyahu.

01:43And this is once again the White House saying that Netanyahu,

01:46the prime minister, understood the importance and the severity of the situation.

01:52So what's going to happen next is anyone's guess will have to see.

01:55But, you know, this could very well be, you know, the end of this crisis.

02:00It really, really does depend on what Israel decides to do and what the next steps might be.

02:04Right. So it seems from what you're saying that the ball is really in Israel's court at the moment.

02:09I mean, do we think in any way this could be the end of this very short-lived ceasefire?

02:13Well, it's anybody's guess.

02:15I mean, the fact of the matter is Donald Trump is certainly very, very angry at Benjamin Netanyahu

02:19because what he had tried to do was posture as the peacemaker

02:23by sending out this true social message early this morning saying that there was a ceasefire

02:28that would have been broken by the United States,

02:31making it in a sense appear that, you know, it was the United States leading

02:36and who had indeed, I'd say, brokered this peace deal and in a sense also, you know,

02:41forced Israel in a sense to stop its campaign.

02:43But on the other hand, what we have now is Benjamin Netanyahu,

02:47who is indeed, if he goes on with this last bombing campaign,

02:50that would clearly be a slap on the wrist of Donald Trump,

02:52which is a person who does not like slaps on the wrist.

02:56So that's for the political side of things.

02:58Then, you know, will Israel want to carry on?

03:00Iran has very, very limited means of striking back.

03:04We've seen that over the past 12 days.

03:05Anyway, if you compare the damage that has been sustained by Israel and Iran,

03:10I mean, there's no comparison.

03:12Iran's, according to the health ministry,

03:15there are 606 people were killed in Iran with these strikes.

03:185,000 were injured.

03:20As we know, you know, all the military infrastructure was at least hit,

03:24a lot of it destroyed.

03:25We know that all the nuclear infrastructure was also hit,

03:31most certainly probably destroyed, at least that's what Donald Trump says.

03:34Donald Trump actually also vented his anger at American networks,

03:37questioning the fact that Fordow, for example, had been completely destroyed.

03:40He said, you know, those B-2 bombers did their job and the job is done.

03:44There's nothing but rubble.

03:45It's all under rock.

03:45Those were his exact words.

03:47So the question mark is, you know, where do we stand with that nuclear program?

03:52Do the Iranians still have their 400 kilograms worth of highly enriched uranium?

03:59It's anybody's guess.

03:59You know, we don't know.

04:00We don't have that information.

04:01But it really can go two ways from now.

04:04Either everybody decides to stop the attacks and the bombings,

04:08or else this could carry on.

04:10But once again, given the military situation, it's very much Israel's decision.

04:14And James, do we have any idea of what kind of effect this could have on the leadership

04:18in these two respective countries, Israel and Iran?

04:21Well, I think Netanyahu probably is going to come out looking, you know, strong and having

04:25achieved his goal, which was, you know, the goal of the Operation Rising Lion.

04:30It was called was to destroy both the nuclear enrichment facilities, but also all the ballistic

04:36program.

04:37And Netanyahu claims to have done that and that indeed he says that there is no more

04:41existential threat caused by Iran in the short term anyway.

04:46And then when it comes to Iran, well, obviously the Mullahs are trying to spin this as an Iranian

04:51victory.

04:52What they've been saying since this morning in communiques is that they had forced Israel

04:56into a unilateral ceasefire, which obviously is a, you know, a narrative that is calibrated

05:02to speak to their own people, though there's been massive, you know, damage in Iran.

05:08You know, what's going to happen with the regime is a real question mark.

05:12I mean, they have appeared, you know, weak in no position to really protect the civilian

05:17population.

05:18It's been a very, very bad few months for Iran.

05:20If you look at all the proxies that have been destroyed one after the other across the

05:24whole Middle East, as it stands right now, most of the military capacities of Iran have

05:29been destroyed, most of its regional allies and proxies have been destroyed.

05:34So Iran is not, is much less of a force to reckon with right now in the Middle East than

05:38it was just a few months ago.

05:40And that, of course, is bad news for the current leadership.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended