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Trump Warns Israel ‘Will be Gone’ if Iran Obtains Nuclear Weapons

Former US President Donald Trump (AP)
Former US President Donald Trump (AP)
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Trump Warns Israel ‘Will be Gone’ if Iran Obtains Nuclear Weapons

Former US President Donald Trump (AP)
Former US President Donald Trump (AP)

Former US President Donald Trump warned that if Iran has nuclear weapons, then Israel will be gone.

In an extended Sunday interview with Fox News, Trump blamed the administration of Democratic US President Joe Biden for its perceived leniency towards Tehran, arguing that this policy allowed Tehran to receive funds, which it used to support terrorist organizations.

He then hinted that Iran was behind the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Trump also criticized the US involvement in the Middle East, noting that it was wrong to remove Saddam Hussein in Iraq because he was Iran's number one enemy.

The current Republican presidential nominee said that during his term, Iran didn't have the money to support terrorist organizations.

He said Iran now has $300 billion after the country increased its oil sales over the past three years.

Trump said he took strong measures against Tehran during his presidential term. “People couldn't buy oil from them. I didn't let them.”

The former president then reiterated: “I am not looking to be enemies with Iran, but they can't have nuclear weapons. You simply cannot allow them to have nuclear weapons. But I will say this: if they have nuclear weapons, Israel is gone. It will be gone.”

Trump noted the strong ties between the United States and Israel, stressing that the Jewish lobby was the strongest in America and no one could attack Israel.

He said Israel is under tremendous pressure right now. “Look at (Democratic Party representative) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, look at (Senate Majority Leader Chuck) Schumer, he's become a Palestinian, he's become a (Hamas) agent and I'm wondering, Schumer, how did this happen.”

Iran has avoided a direct confrontation with Israel despite threats of retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last July.

Meanwhile, there were back channel diplomatic talks in which Iran has expressed its desire to reach a serious agreement with the Western powers on its nuclear program.

Trump had pulled the United States out of the international nuclear deal with Iran in 2018. The other signatories, the UK, China, France, Russia and Germany, remained part of it.

Since then, Iran has expanded its stockpile of enriched uranium, beyond the limit set in its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran's enriched uranium stockpile already contains sufficient uranium to fuel three or four nuclear warheads with further enrichment, according to the latest assessment by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Experts say if Trump returns to the White House, he will continue to exercise a strategy of maximum pressure on Iran.

Trump repeatedly said he could have prevented the October 7 attacks if he were president. However, he does not rule out seeking a new agreement with Iran but with strong and decisive terms.

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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
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NATO and Ukraine to Hold Emergency Talks after Russia’s Attack with New Hypersonic Missile

A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)
A missile shrapnel lies on the grass in front of damaged rehabilitation center for people with disabilities, following a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, on November 22, 2024. (AFP)

NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.”

Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday's Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech to his nation that the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia.

"The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow's talking points, suggesting the use of US-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement.

“These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orban said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.”

Orban cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick... there will be consequences,” he said.

Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday's missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.”

At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.”

He underlined that the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine.

Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv.

In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who added this is not the first time such a threat has been received.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office continued to work in compliance with standard security measures, a spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile, whose name in Russian means “hazelnut tree,” was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region, and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six nonnuclear warheads each carrying six submunitions and reached a spoeed of Mach 11, it said.

Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile.

Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles (6 1/2 kilometers) southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad.

The stricken area was cordoned off and out of public view. With no fatalities reported from the attack, Dnipro residents resorted to dark humor on social media, mostly focused on the missile’s name, Oreshnik.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia struck a residential district of Sumy overnight with Iranian-designed Shahed drones, killing two people and injuring 13, the regional administration said..

Ukraine’s Suspilne media, quoting Sumy regional head Volodymyr Artiukh, said the drones were stuffed with shrapnel elements. “These weapons are used to destroy people, not to destroy objects,” said Artiukh, according to Suspilne.