“The vast majority of people in the Middle East seek stability and calm,” said President Donald Trump during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia. “[O]ur task is to unify against the few agents of chaos and terror that are left and that are holding hostage the dreams of millions and millions of great people,” he declared.
“The biggest and most destructive of these forces is the regime in Iran, which has caused unthinkable suffering in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, Yemen,” and for its own people, said President Trump.
“Iran’s decades of neglect and mismanagement have left the country plagued by rolling blackouts lasting for hours a day. . . .Iran’s leaders have managed to turn green farmland into dry deserts as their corrupt water mafia — let’s call it the water mafia — causes droughts and empty riverbeds. They get rich, but they don’t let the people have any of it.”
Moreover, “Iran’s leaders have focused on stealing their people’s wealth to fund terror and bloodshed abroad,” dragging “down an entire region with them,” said President Trump.
“Countless lives were lost in the Iranian effort to maintain a crumbling regime in Syria. . . .In Lebanon, their Hezbollah proxies have pillaged the hopes of a nation whose capital, Beirut, was once called the Paris of the Middle East,” observed President Trump.
Nevertheless, the United States is ready to offer Iran a new path toward a more hopeful future, said President Trump.
As I’ve shown repeatedly, I am willing to end past conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even if our differences may be very profound.”
“I have never believed in having permanent enemies,” declared President Trump.
“I want to make a deal with Iran. . . .But if Iran’s leadership rejects this olive branch and continues to attack their neighbors, then we will have no choice but to inflict massive maximum pressure, drive Iranian oil exports to zero, like I did before.”
At the end of his first administration, President Trump noted Iran “had no money for terror. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah.” He reaffirmed “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
“The choice is [Iran’s] to make,” said President Trump. “We really want them to be a successful country.”
