US President Donald Trump gestures during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday. [AP]
US President Donald Trump gestures during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday. [AP]

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US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that if Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels follow through on their declared blockade of the Red Sea, "we'll take care of it."

Trump made the remark during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House, after reporters asked about the possibility of a Houthi blockade. "We'll have to see what happens. It hasn't happened so far," he said.

The Houthis have declared their intention to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — the waterway linking the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea — targeting Saudi Arabia, a pro-US oil producer, amid an ongoing military standoff between the United States and Iran over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump's remarks were widely interpreted as a warning that the US military would strike the Houthis if they moved to enforce the blockade. US forces launched a large-scale campaign against the Houthis from March through May last year, targeting the group's attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea on Trump's orders.

Trump also warned that the US would soon strike a site in Iran known as "Pickaxe Mountain," where underground nuclear facilities are believed to have been built. The site lies near Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment complex and is thought to house fortified below-ground nuclear infrastructure.

"We're going to be hitting that area very hard, pretty soon," Trump said, adding: "Any place that they're even thinking about with respect to nuclear, we will hit very, very hard."

Asked whether Iran had moved nuclear centrifuges to Pickaxe Mountain, Trump said, "Maybe they did," but added that "if there's no nuclear material, it doesn't matter."

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, regarding President Donald Trump's supplemental defense budget request. [Reuters]
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, regarding President Donald Trump's supplemental defense budget request. [Reuters]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who attended the meeting, invoked North Korea as a cautionary tale in urging that Iran be prevented from developing nuclear weapons. "For 47 years they have built up their conventional military, just like North Korea," Hegseth said. "Remember, that's exactly how North Korea got the bomb."

Trump also said Iran "desperately" wants to meet with the United States, but added, "We have no interest until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way."

He said that even if US forces withdrew immediately, it would take Iran 20 to 25 years to rebuild. "But we're not leaving right now, and we've done a big number on Iran," Trump said. "I don't think they'll ever rebuild. Frankly, they haven't seen anything yet. We've been pretty generous so far."

On the US maritime blockade of Iran, Trump said no one could break through it, describing it as "like a steel wall" and declaring the blockade fully effective.

Trump also expressed support for Lebanon during the meeting. "Lebanon has been a very mistreated country," he said. "We're going to treat them with the respect they deserve and treat them properly."

Meanwhile, Trump said he would raise with China his earlier allegations of Chinese interference in the 2020 US presidential election. On a fire at a federal building in New York on Tuesday, Trump suggested it was the work of immigrants, saying: "That's what people who are allowed into our country do. They're radical lunatics and I'm going to get them out."


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