This week’s episode came against the backdrop of a peacemaking visit to Iran by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, who brought a note from Mr. Trump to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. The ayatollah dismissed the overture. “I do not see Trump as worthy of any message exchange, and I do not have any reply for him, now or in future,” he said Thursday after meeting with Mr. Abe, according to the ayatollah’s website.
In his interview on Friday, Mr. Trump said he was still open to diplomacy with Iran. “I’m ready when they are,” he said. “Whenever they’re ready it’s okay. In the meantime, I’m in no rush.”
Indeed, the often-bellicose president offered a relatively restrained response to the tanker explosions, avoiding incendiary threats and instead focusing most of his attention on criticizing his predecessor, President Barack Obama, for the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran that Mr. Trump has since pulled out of.
Mr. Trump insisted that Iran is in retreat in the region as a result of American pressure. “They’re a nation of terror,” he said. “And they’ve changed a lot since I’ve been president, I can tell you. They were unstoppable and now they are in deep, deep trouble.”
He added that “they haven’t screamed ‘death to America’ lately” and he asserted that Iran was retrenching from its interventions around the region.“They’re pulling back from everywhere,” he said. “They’re pulling back out of Syria. They’re pulling back out of Yemen.”
In fact, some Iranian proxy groups in the region have stepped up attacks lately. The Houthi faction in Yemen, which has been supported by Iran, has attacked Saudi oil pipelines and other targets. Just this week, a Houthi missile slammed into the arrival halls of a Saudi airport, injuring 26 people, according to Saudi news reports.
The Houthis reported launching a drone attack on the same airport on Friday but the Saudi military said it intercepted five Houthi drones and the airport was operating normally.