US forces destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability and prevented it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday while addressing US troops aboard an aircraft carrier in Japan.
“They took out that nuclear capability. Iran would have had a nuclear weapon within two months. Not anymore,” Trump told cheering troops on the USS George Washington, which is stationed in Japan. “If we’re in a war, we’re going to win the war,” he said.
Trump described the strikes as part of a broader effort to “end wars all over this planet.” “I ended eight wars in eight months, the most of any president in history,” he said, listing “Kosovo and Serbia, the Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran” among the conflicts.
Trump made the remarks during a stop in Japan, the second leg of his three-country tour of Asia. Earlier in Tokyo, he met newly elected Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and signed a rare earths deal, calling the partnership a “golden age” in US-Japan relations.
Iran says US threat ‘has always existed’
Hours before Trump’s speech, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the possibility of US military action “has always existed.”
“The United States has always said that all options are on the table,” Baghaei said. He added that Tehran “did not expect such a threat during previous negotiations” but must remain alert and “take past experiences into account” in any future talks.
Baghaei also said that remarks by Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi about a letter from Trump to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei were “reflected incorrectly.”
State media had earlier quoted Takht-Ravanchi as saying the March letter warned that if talks failed “there will be war.” Baghaei said that interpretation was inaccurate.
The message was sent three months before the 12-day war in June, when Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The United States joined the campaign, striking Iranian military and nuclear sites in support of Israel. The fighting caused heavy damage to nuclear sites and killed several senior Iranian commanders.