President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States attempted to arm Iranian protesters, but the weapons were diverted and never passed to the right people. Trump said the armaments were meant to help anti-government protesters fight back against the authorities. “We sent guns, a lot of guns, they were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs,” Trump told reporters while at a White House Easter event. “You know what happened? ” Trump did not give details about who he was accusing of taking the US weapons.
However, on Sunday, Trump was quoted as saying by a Fox News reporter that he blamed Kurdish intermediaries for having taken weapons destined for Iranian dissidents. Trump also said that more than 170 US military aircraft were used in the rescue of the crew of a fighter plane downed in Iran. He said that 21 aircraft were used in the operation to recover the first crew member and another 155 in the second rescue mission. Two transport planes got stuck in sand and had to be blown up, he added. Trump, meanwhile, brushed off concerns that hitting Iran’s power facilities, as he has threatened, after a deadline expires this week, would be a war crime.
“I’m not worried about it,” Trump told reporters when asked what he would say to those who allege that striking power plants would breach the laws of war. “You know the war crime? The war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” the president said.