Trump offers rare praise of Hamas and threatens Iran during State of the Union
US President Donald Trump offered rare praise to Hamas during his State of the Union address, saying the Palestinian movement had “worked along with Israel” to retrieve the bodies of Israeli captives.
In a section of the speech on wars abroad, Trump claimed he had ended eight wars.
“Cambodia and Thailand. Pakistan and India,” the president said. “Kosovo and Serbia. Israel and Iran. Egypt and Ethiopia. Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Congo and Rwanda.”
“And, of course, the war in Gaza, which proceeds at a very low level, it’s just about there.”
Trump thanked his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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He said that he had negotiated the return of all Israeli captives, both alive and dead, adding “nobody thought that was possible”.
“We got them back, but we only got back 14 or 15 of the dead, of the 28, and believe it or not, Hamas worked along with Israel, and they dug and they dug and they dug,” Trump said, in reference to efforts to retrieve the bodies of 28 captives.
“It’s a tough, it’s a tough thing to do, going through bodies all over. Passing up 100 bodies sometimes for each one they found, a tough job,” he added, implying that hundreds of Palestinian remains were passed up to find Israeli captives.
“They finally got it back to 27 and then, Steve and Jared, they got it back to 28, they found all 28, nobody thought that was possible but we did it,” Trump said.
He made no other references to Israel or Gaza in the two-hour long speech.
Palestinian-American lawmaker Rashida Tlaib wore a keffiyeh-style scarf and watermelon earrings during the address, as well as a badge that read, “Fuck ICE.”
She and Representative Ilhan Omar repeatedly heckled Trump, calling him a liar. Omar at one point said, “You have killed Americans,” referring to ICE agents killing two American citizens.
Trump responded by telling Omar: “You should be ashamed of yourself.”
Al Greene, the Democrat lawmaker of Texas, was escorted out of the chamber for the second year in a row. He held up a sign reading "black people aren't apes!" in reference to a racist video shared by Trump recently showing former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
Trump threatens Iran
The president spoke briefly on Iran, amid a backdrop of a buildup of US vessels and weaponry in the region.
“As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must. That’s why in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran’s nuclear weapons programme,” he said.
The US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites caused significant damage, though it’s not clear that it “obliterated” the nuclear programme.
The Pentagon assessed that the attack set Iran’s nuclear project back by up to two years.
Trump said that Iran’s Islamic republic “seized control of that proud nation” 47 years ago, adding that “the regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate”.
He accused them of killing and maiming thousands of US service personnel, and “millions of people” with roadside bombs.
“And we took out Soleimani, I did that during my first term, it had a huge impact. He was the father of the roadside bomb,” Trump said, referring to Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed by a US strike in January 2020.
The president said that 32,000 protesters had been killed by Iranian authorities in recent months following mass demonstrations.
“They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” he said.
Trump added that Iran was “warned” not to rebuild its nuclear programme, but they “want to start over again”. “We are in negotiations with them; they want to make a deal but we haven’t heard those secret words: ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon’,” he said.
The US president said his preference was to solve things through diplomacy, but that he would not allow “the world’s number one sponsor of terror” to have a nuclear weapon.
Iran denies it is trying to produce nuclear arms, and insists that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
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