United States President Donald Trump said he is ending all trade with Spain and criticised the United Kingdom during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the Oval Office. His remarks followed Spain’s refusal to authorise the use of US bases for operations related to the war in Iran.
Trade decision on Spain
Mr Trump stated that “Spain has nothing that we need”, announcing that he is terminating all commercial transactions with the country. He attributed the decision to the position taken by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez regarding the conflict with Iran.
It is noted that Mr Sánchez had refused to grant permission for the use of American bases in Spain in connection with the war in Iran.
Remarks on the United Kingdom and Germany
After referring to Spain, Mr Trump turned his attention to the United Kingdom, telling media that he is “not satisfied” with the country. Criticising Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, he said: “We are not dealing with Winston Churchill”, adding that Germany assisted in the military strike.
“Spain and the United Kingdom did not help,” he said.
For his part, Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed agreement regarding the removal of what he described as “this terrible regime in Tehran”.
Statements on military operations in Iran
Regarding operations in Iran, Mr Trump said that the United States and Israel are “doing very well” and that Iran has been “decimated”.
“They have no navy, it has been neutralised, they have no air force, it has been neutralised, they have no aerial detection and that has been neutralised,” he said. “Almost everything has collapsed.”
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He added: “We are doing very well, we have an excellent military and they are doing a fantastic job.”
Asked how he decided to strike Iran, Mr Trump said: “We were negotiating with these madmen. They were going to attack first, I had a strong belief in that. I did not want that to happen.”
He also said that he may have compelled Israel to intervene regarding the timing of the attack, but repeated that “almost everything they have has now been destroyed”. He claimed that Iran would have developed nuclear weapons within a month had it not been struck.
Mr Trump further alleged that Iran “struck countries that had nothing to do with what is happening”, adding that they are “only hitting political spaces, hotels and apartment buildings”.
He said the worst-case scenario would be “to strike Iran and someone take power who is as bad as the previous one”. He also claimed that most of the Iranian officials whom Washington had considered as potential future leaders are now dead.
“Most of the people we were thinking about are dead. And now we have another group of leaders. They may also be dead. Soon we will not know anyone,” the US president said.
Source: cnn.gr