Trump says hopes for no 'further action' on Iran
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had halted the killing of protestors after his warnings of a military intervention and he hoped for no further action on the country.
Trump was asked by a CNBC reported about the movement of a US carrier strike group to the region following the deadliest crackdown by the Islamic Republic on protestors in its history.
"A lot of people are wondering whether that's a prelude to further action," interviewer Joe Kernen asked Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We hope there’s not going to be further action,” Trump replied. “They were shooting people indiscriminately on the streets. This was a big thing for me. They were going to hang 837 mostly young people."
Trump had warned Iran's leadership early in protests which first erupted on Dec. 28 not to kill demonstrators and later encouraged them to take over institutions, adding in a social media post that "help is on the way."
According to medics and government sources speaking to Iran International, the death toll from the deadly security response totals at least 12,000 people.
"When you did successfully hit Fordow, you got a lot of grief, and the Democrats were doing it," Kernen added, referring to June 22 US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites. "Now the grief is, oh, you promised to do something in Iran. Now there are at least finger points that you said you're going to help the protesters, and now you're not, so you can't win."
Trump replied: "If I came up with the cure to cancer, they'd say, why didn't you do it fast?" He added: "Look, they're sick people. They really are there. They call it Trump derangement syndrome."
The interviewer persisted: "Should we stay tuned in Iran?"
"I guess. I mean, look, it's a rough place. It's a place that we hit very hard," Trump replied.
"We're going to find out where they are now about what they're going to do with nuclear. They can't do the nuclear," he said. "The one thing I've been strong on: they can't do the nuclear."
"Now, this attack that we did at the time, which is now a little bit older than what happened in Venezuela recently, which was equally as good - but the attack in Iran, if they do it, it's going to happen again," Trump said, without elaborating.
