United States President Donald Trump on Thursday said that "nothing is off the table" when it comes to dealing with Iran, soon after Iran confirmed test launching a ballistic missile. Trump's fellow Republicans in Congress have also said that they would back Trump by introducing new sanctions for Iran.
Iran confirms conducting new missile tests, says did not breach nuclear deal
Trump made the statement when he was asked by reporters if he would consider military options to respond to Tehran, after the US president's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, put Iran "on notice" after the missile test.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, told reporters that America should stop "appeasing" Tehran.
"I would be in favour of additional sanctions on Iran. I'd like to put as much toothpaste back in the tube as possible. I think the last administration appeased Iran far too much," Ryan said.
Ryan, like majority of the Republicans in the house, had opposed the nuclear agreement with Iran which was instated last year. However, Republican lawmakers have said that they are working with the Trump administration to push back on Iran as much as possible.
"Now we have a partner that's willing to deal with Iran in the way that Iran should be dealt with. ... And so we're in a real different ball game," Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Reuters.
Corker also added that his committee was "in the early stages" of working on legislation related to the Iran nuclear issue.
Iranian Defence Minister Hossein Dehghan on Wednesday had confirmed that Iran had conducted a ballistic missile test. He, however, denied that the test was in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal reached by the nation and other major world powers, including the United States.
