Trump likens US Navy to ‘pirates’

Washington: President Donald Trump has said the US navy acted “like pirates” as he described an operation seizing a ship amid the tit-for-tat American blockade of Iranian ports. “We … land on top of it and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” said Trump at a rally in Florida on Friday. “We’re like pira­tes. We’re sort of like pirates. But we’re not playing games,” he said.

The Republican president signalled potential disruption to global oil flows, warning that maritime congestion and military actions near key shipping routes could affect energy supplies. “You see all of those ships. they're all over the place. Hundreds and hundreds of ships,” he said, adding, “These ships are loaded with oil they can’t get out of the strait.”

He linked military operations to economic outcomes. “This is the first war. where we actually have paid for the cost of the war by about 37 times already,” he said.

Trump said the US was in a war with Iran because “lunatics can’t have a nuclear weapon”. “We stopped them (Iran) with the B2 bombers. If we didn't do that, they would've had a nuclear weapon. Israel, the Middle East, and Europe would have been blown to pieces,” he said, adding, “We’re in a war because, we can't let lunatics have a nuclear weapon.”

While Trump was speaking to reporters in Washington, a reporter asked him, “Are you considering new strikes on Iran?” The Republican leader stepped back and said, “Why would I tell you that?”

Trump joked the US Navy would take on Cuba on the way home from Iran. “Cuba’s got problems,” Trump said in a digression in his Friday evening speech before the non-profit Forum Club of the Palm Beaches.

Further, Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions on the Cuban government. The order also seeks to limit Cuba’s access to the global banking system, imposing secondary sanctions on people, entities and financial institutions. Havana denounced new US sanctions as “unilateral coercive measu­res”, saying such actions demonstrate an intention to im­p­ose collective punishment on the Cuban people. –Agencies