
President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that the US has "total control" over Iran's money, with Washington effectively acting as Tehran's banker, as the two countries remain locked in a military conflict.
"We control their money, what they had, which is a lot. We have complete control over it. I'm their banker. I'm their banker," Trump said in an interview.
Trump described Iran's economy as in great difficulty.
"They have 300% inflation. They have no value. Their currency has almost no value."
"They have, they're not paying their soldiers. Their soldiers are leaving. So, just keep going like this. It's not sustainable," he said.
The president outlined three possible approaches to Iran: maintaining current pressure, hitting the country "really, really hard," or relying primarily on economic pressure.
"We can keep it quiet, and they will fail. We can continue, you know, to act in a kind of easy and calm way. Like I said, a kind of negotiator."
"You see, they are very cunning negotiators because they agree to something, then they come out and tell the press that they didn't do it themselves. They are very dishonest people. So we have three strategies," Trump said.
"So just keep doing this. It's not sustainable. Hit them very, very hard. Or this, this. I think the third is just to resist economically. But we're doing this anyway. That's part of the point," he added.
When asked how the conflict could end, Trump said his main objective was to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"I am involved in this issue for one main reason: that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," he said, claiming that US military action had prevented Tehran from obtaining one.