President Trump has said the war in Iran will be a “short term excursion” and “complete, pretty much”, while also insisting that it must end in “ultimate victory” with “the enemy totally and decisively defeated”.
The US president also claimed that the war began because Iran had been preparing to attack the US “within a week”. He said: “They were ready. They had all these missiles, far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us. They were going to attack all of the Middle East and Israel, and if they had a nuclear weapon they would’ve used it on Israel, and this was going to be a major attack.”
President Trump was speaking as oil prices surged to a recent high of more than $100 per barrel, its highest level for six years, before falling back.
There have been more US and Israeli attacks on Iranian targets, while Turkey, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar all said they had intercepted more Iranian missiles aimed at them.
Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting from Dubai.
Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog
For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news
#BBCNews