Either a deal else US will finish the job: Trump on Iran

President Donald Trump declared on Monday that the United States would either strike a deal with Iran or "finish the job," while also asserting Washington's capacity to cripple Tehran's critical infrastructure.

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We are going to win one way or the other. We're either going to make a deal, or we're going to finish the job.

"We are going to win one way or the other. We're either going to make a deal, or we're going to finish the job," Trump said, expressing a preference for a negotiated settlement over military action. He noted the US could disable Iran's bridges or energy supply within hours, emphasizing that Iran currently lacks the financial resources it once had.

Trump's comments follow his earlier assertion that the US could eliminate Iran's surviving leadership in "one shot." He indicated, however, that diplomatic channels would remain open to allow for negotiation.

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I'd rather make a deal because I don't want to affect 91 million people. We can knock down their bridges in one hour. We can knock out their energy supply, all of those big plants that they've built, big, beautiful modern plants. They had a lot of money. They don't have any money now. We haven't given them any money.

Iran strongly condemned Trump's remarks. The Iranian Embassy in Armenia posted on X that the US would never understand the grief surrounding the death of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as it "neither has a civilization, history, nor honor." The embassy added, "People can be killed, but ideals cannot. You killed Ayatollah Khamenei, but in reality, you broke a perfume bottle whose scent spread everywhere."

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But we can knock out their electricity and power-generating plants in, I would say, a small part of an afternoon. Every plant will be gone. And they know that.

Meanwhile, Khamenei's body arrived in Qom by helicopter for a funeral procession scheduled to continue in Iraq.

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They are all there. One shot [and we can take them all out], but we are not going to do that because then we would have nobody to negotiate with.