U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up his verbal threats against Iran and media reports say that he has now been provided with military options. When he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Dec. 29, Trump made a generic threat: “I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down... We’ll knock the hell out of them.” Then he qualified his statement, saying he hoped that they weren’t building up. At that time, there were no organized riots in Iran, just the first day of merchants protesting the massive inflation Iran was undergoing. It was four days before armed provocateurs would show up.
On Jan. 9, speaking to U.S. oil executives, Trump said: “I’ve made the statement very strongly that if they [Iran] start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts. So we don’t want that to happen.”
The next day, Netanyahu called U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and, according to Reuters’ citation of an Israeli official who was present for the call, the possibility of a U.S. intervention on Iran was discussed. Marco Rubio’s State Department posted a video on its English-language site of the night-time raid on Venezuela with the message to Iran: “Do not play games with President Trump. When he says he’ll do something, he means it.” And Trump posted: “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!”
