Trump says US will hit Iran hard after attack, was briefed on tanker struck by drone in Egypt

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said on July 29 the United States would hit Iran very hard after an attack on the US military in Jordan.

“So it’s our turn,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

He said Washington would see if there was an agreement at some point between the two nations to end their war, “but we’re going to hit them very hard”.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 28 said they fired several ballistic missiles at a US air base and a military centre in Jordan.

Separately, the US military said it had intercepted multiple ballistic missiles.

Trump also said he had been briefed on a drone hit on a US-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta.

“I’ve been briefed. It’s a little more of the same. But it’s going to be straightening out,” Trump said without elaborating.

Trump, responding to a Reuters report that Iran is expected to receive a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defence missile launchers, said such a development would be surprising.

Trump said earlier this week that he trusted China’s President Xi Jinping, as well as Russian leader Vladimir Putin, when they told him they would not get involved in the war on Iran’s behalf.

“Well, that would be surprising. I mean, things like that happen, but that would be surprising. He (Xi) told me very strongly he wouldn’t partake, but he knows I’d be quite disappointed,” Trump said, in response to a question about the Reuters report. REUTERS