Trump says US may still strike one or two Iran sites

If you’ve lived in Kuwait for any length of time, you know how fast a headline about Iran can turn into a real worry about flight delays, fuel prices or just a general sense of unease in the region. That’s why comments from US President Donald Trump over the weekend are worth a few minutes of your time, even if nothing has actually happened yet.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday at his residence in Florida, Trump said the United States had already destroyed a large part of Iran’s military capability, but that one or two targets still needed to be “dealt with”. He said this could be done “within 10 minutes” if needed, and mentioned a specific site, Mount Kolang Gaz La (sometimes called “Pickaxe Mountain”), in Iran’s Isfahan province, about 200km south of Tehran.

So what exactly did Trump say?

Trump told reporters that negotiations with Iran aimed at ending the conflict are “going well”, though he added a note of caution, saying Iran is “not entirely trustworthy”. He repeated that the US is in no rush to take further military action, because it has already caused serious damage to Iran’s military capability and its nuclear programme.

His exact words, as reported, were that the US had “wiped out their nuclear capabilities” but that “we still have one or two sites we need to deal with, but we can do that within 10 minutes.” He specifically referred to the Mount Kolang Gaz La site in Isfahan province.

Iran, for its part, has warned that any new strikes on its territory would be met with a counter-attack. The source report does not give further detail on how Tehran plans to respond or when.

Why this matters if you live in Kuwait

Kuwait sits close to both the US and Iran in this ongoing standoff, geographically and politically. Any flare-up in military action between the two carries real knock-on effects for residents here, even if Kuwait itself is not a direct party to the conflict.

Past rounds of US-Iran tension have affected oil prices, which matter a lot for a country whose budget depends heavily on oil revenue. They have also, at times, affected commercial flight paths and insurance costs for airlines flying over or near the Gulf, which can push up ticket prices or cause delays.

There is also the simple psychological weight of living in a region where a major power openly says a strike “within 10 minutes” is on the table. For long-term expats with families here, and for citizens with relatives who travel for work or study, this kind of statement is the sort of thing worth keeping an eye on, even without panicking.

You can follow our wider international news coverage for updates on how this story develops.

What’s still unclear

The source report does not say when, or if, the US plans to act on Trump’s comments. It also doesn’t detail what Iran’s promised counter-attack would look like, or whether back-channel negotiations referenced by Trump have a set deadline.

It’s also worth noting that Trump has made similar statements before during periods of negotiation, often as a way to apply pressure at the table rather than announce an imminent strike. Whether that’s the case here isn’t something we can confirm from this report alone.

<p>[EDITOR NOTE: a note here on how past Gulf tension periods affected fuel prices or flight bookings out of Kuwait would help readers judge how seriously to take this]</p>

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