US President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that military actions against Tehran were still on the table after Iran downed a US drone.
"We will call it 'Let's make Iran great again,'" Trump told journalists outside the White House as he prepared to depart for Camp David.
I am at Camp David working on many things, including Iran! We have a great Economy, Tariffs have been very helpful both with respect to the huge Dollars coming IN, & on helping to make good Trade Deals. The Dow heading to BEST June in 80 years! Stock Market BEST June in 50 years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2019
A day before, the president said that the US military was ready to strike targets in Iran in response to the downing of the US drone but he called off the attacks the last minute because they were not proportionate.
"If the leadership of Iran behaves badly, then it's going to be a very, very bad day for them," Trump told reporters.
"But hopefully they're smart and hopefully they really care for their people and not themselves, and hopefully we can get Iran back on to an economic track that's fantastic, where they're a really wealthy nation, which would be a wonderful thing," he added.
The statement comes moments after the US president announced another round of anti-Iran sanctions as he believes that the new restrictions will stop Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.
"We're not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon," Donald Trump told reporters.
On Friday, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that there were new sanctions planned for Iran to be introduced on conditions unrelated to the unfolding confrontation between the two nations.
Earlier in the month, the US decided to reinforce its military in the region with 1,000 additional US troops, an aircraft carrier strike group, Patriot missiles, B-52 bombers, and F-15 fighters. The move came in response to Iran's alleged threat after Washington blamed for an attack on two oil tankers.
On 13 June, two oil tankers, the Panama-registered Kokuka Courageous, operated by Japan’s Kokuka Sangyo Co, and Marshall Islands-flagged Front Altair, owned by Norway's Frontline, were hit by blasts in the Gulf of Oman, near the Strait of Hormuz.
The US and several other countries, namely Saudi Arabia and the UK, immediately put the blame on Iran.