U.S. President Donald Trump said that Cuba is close to major political developments, estimating that the regime on the island “will fall soon.” He made the statement in a phone interview he gave to CNN on Friday.

Referring to the situation in Cuba while speaking about U.S. military successes during his second term, Trump said: “Cuba will fall very soon. By the way, it’s unrelated to what we’re discussing, but Cuba will fall as well. They very much want to make a deal.”

The U.S. president added that he intends to assign the matter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“They want to make a deal, and so I will put Marco (Rubio) in charge of it and we will see how it develops. Right now we are very focused on what is happening at the moment. We have plenty of time, but Cuba is ready — after 50 years,” he said.

Continuing, Trump claimed that he has been following developments in the country for decades and that the situation has evolved in a way that, as he said, is linked to his own policy.

“I’ve been watching it for 50 years and now it fell into my hands because of me, it has collapsed, but in any case it fell into my hands. And we are doing very well,” he said.

Developments a “matter of time”

A day earlier, speaking at the White House, Trump had said he believes it is “only a matter of time” before Cubans living in the United States will be able to return to their country of origin.

The U.S. president suggested that the issue of Cuba is one of the next targets of his administration, after the war currently underway with Iran.

Referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he said: “He is doing an excellent job and his next mission will be this one; we want to deal with this particular issue of Cuba.”

He then added that the head of U.S. diplomacy believes the current crisis should first be completed before Washington proceeds with new moves.

“He’s waiting. But he says ‘let’s finish with this first.’ We could do everything at the same time, but then bad things happen. If you look at what has happened in countries over the years, when you do everything too quickly, bad things happen. We will not let anything bad happen to this country,” Trump said.