TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – U.S. President Donald Trump said a peace agreement with Iran has spared the country from facing further U.S. military strikes that could have continued for years.
Trump also argued that without the agreement, the Strait of Hormuz would not have reopened and global markets would have continued to deteriorate.
"And oil is dropping like it has never dropped before, at levels that went in numbers down $7, down $8. They've never seen anything like that," Trump said during a press conference on Wednesday, June 17, as quoted by Roll Call.
"But if we didn't do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years. You would never have the Hormuz Strait open."
He also claimed that financial markets would have fallen to unprecedented levels rather than strengthening as they have in recent weeks.
"You would never have success. Your market would have, instead of going up at levels that nobody's ever seen before, would go down at levels that nobody ever saw before, maybe except for 1929 or whatever," Trump added.
"And, you know, all the tough guys, tough guys don't realize that this wasn't a three-month deal, this was years in the making."
"Do you know why? Because I killed General Soleimani."
Trump was referring to Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
According to Trump, the peace agreement with Iran might never have been achieved had Soleimani remained alive.
He also said that without the deal, Iran could have faced severe economic consequences, a scenario he said he wanted to avoid.
On June 14, Iran and the United States confirmed that negotiations on a peace memorandum of understanding (MoU) had been completed. The document is scheduled to be formally signed in Switzerland on Friday, June 19.
The MoU will provide a 60-day framework for both countries to negotiate a final agreement covering Iran's nuclear program and the potential lifting of U.S. sanctions.
Trump also said on Wednesday that he may remain in Europe to attend the signing ceremony for the agreement.
Read: Fact Check: Did Indonesia's One-Stop Export Policy Hurt Singapore's Oligarchs?
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