UNITED States President Donald Trump has warned Hamas of dire consequences if it fails to disarm, while also threatening to “quickly eradicate” and “knock down” any attempts by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme.
Trump issued the threats on Monday, after holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Their discussions focused on advancing the ceasefire deal Trump brokered in Gaza, as well as addressing Israeli concerns over Iran, and over Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump said that Israel has been doing its part in the Gaza ceasefire, despite launching near-daily strikes that have killed at least 400 people, and warned Hamas to live up to its side of the agreement.
“We talked about Hamas and we talked about disarmament, and they’re going to be given a very short period of time to disarm, and we’ll see how that works out,” he said.
“If they don’t disarm, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it and then there’ll be hell to pay for them. And we don’t want that.”
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
The first phase of the ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10, calls for the exchange of Israeli captives held by Hamas for Palestinian detainees and prisoners held by Israel, as well as an increase in aid and a partial Israeli withdrawal in Gaza.
Hamas is yet to return the body of one Israeli captive, while Israel, in addition to continued deadly attacks, has restricted the entry of aid and delayed the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
But Trump heaped the blame solely on Hamas for the delay in moving towards the second phase of the truce. The armed group has previously said it will not give up its weapons as long as Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory continues, but was willing to set them aside and offered a long truce of seven to 10 years.
Trump went on to suggest that Iran may be working to restore its nuclear programme after the US air strikes in June damaged three Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But, hopefully, that’s not happening.”
If Iran was trying to build up its nuclear programme again, “we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup”, he said. The consequences of such a move could be “more powerful than the last time”.
“We know exactly where they’re going, what they’re doing, and I hope they’re not doing it, because we don’t want to waste fuel on a B-2,” Trump added, referring to the bomber used in the earlier strike. “It’s a 37-hour trip both ways. I don’t want to waste a lot of fuel.”
The US president declined to offer evidence to support his allegations against Iran. But he added that the US and Israel have been “extremely victorious” against their enemies, and that if the US “didn’t beat Iran, you wouldn’t have had peace in the Middle East”.
When asked whether the US would back an Israeli attack on Iran’s missile programme, Trump said, “If they will continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear? Fast. OK? One will be: Yes, absolutely. The other is: We’ll do it immediately.”
There was no immediate comment from Iran.
Tehran has denied seeking to build a nuclear weapon and ruled out negotiating over its missile programme, which is at the core of its defence strategy.