Mike Waltz says “I would never take anything off the table for the president” on bombing Iran nuclear plants

Washington — Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Sunday that “all options should be on the table and the president’s made that very clear” after President Trump threatened to destroy Iran‘s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened. 

“I would never take anything off the table for the president,” Waltz said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social late Saturday that if Iran doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, the U.S. will “hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” The post came as the key waterway responsible for transporting around 20% of the world’s oil has been effectively closed to most ship traffic by Iran’s military forces since the war began three weeks ago. 

Asked whether the president is planning to bomb a nuclear power plant, Waltz argued that “the important point here is to understand the IRGC, a declared terrorist organization, not only by us but a number of European countries, controls a huge swath of Iran’s critical infrastructure, their economy, and certainly many of their governing institutions.”

“And so to the extent we’re degrading their military capability and their defense industrial base, all options should be on the table, and the president’s made that very clear,” he said. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told Politico last week that an attack on energy infrastructure from either side could constitute a war crime. Waltz responded on Sunday, saying “when you have a regime that has its grips in so much critical infrastructure that’s using it to further, not only the repression of its own people, to attack its neighbors and in contravention of U.N. sanctions, to march towards a nuclear weapon, then that makes those legitimate targets.”

Pressed by Margaret Brennan on water desalinization’s link to the energy infrastructure and its implications, Waltz said “I have no doubt that the president, the Pentagon, their team, will ensure that what they target is geared towards the military infrastructure of Iran.”

The president’s threat to “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants came a day after Mr. Trump said the Strait of Hormuz would have to be “guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it.” Waltz said the two statements are “not necessarily mutually exclusive.”

Waltz said that Italy, Germany, France, Japan and other countries have committed to help with the effort to ensure safe passage through the waterway. 

“So we are seeing our allies come around as they should, but at the same time, the president is not going to stand for this regime as it’s threatened and tried for five decades to hold the world’s energy supplies hostage under its genocidal intent,” Waltz said.