US president tells Financial Times his ‘preference would be to take the oil’ but that ‘some stupid people back in the US say: “why are you doing that?”’
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Full report: Iran accuses US of plotting ground assault while publicly seeking talks
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Analysis: what the Houthis’ entry into the Iran war means for the conflict and the wider region
Donald Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds (454kg) of uranium from Iran, the Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing unnamed US officials.
The mission would likely put American forces inside the country for days or longer, the report says.
But the president remains generally open to the idea, according to the officials, because it could help accomplish his central goal of preventing Iran from ever making a nuclear weapon.
The combined effect of both waterways being shut to commercial traffic from countries that neither the Iranians nor Houthis favour would be devastating.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s remark that “the policy of a state lies in its geography” has never seemed more apt.
