Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Donald Trump has compared the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities to the second world war bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as he dismissed an intelligence leak that suggested the impact was limited.
Describing the weekend’s assault as “obliterating” the sites, the US president said that it had brought the conflict between Iran and Iraq to a swift conclusion and likened the strikes to nuclear bombs dropped on Japan in 1945.
“I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima, I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing — that ended a war,” Trump said at a Nato summit in The Hague on Wednesday.
“This ended, [the Israel-Iran] war. If we didn’t take [out the nuclear facilities], they would be fighting right now,” he added.
Trump said that the intelligence leaked on Tuesday, which said the US strikes had only set back Iran’s nuclear programme by a few months, was inconclusive.
He added the damage to the sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan could not be fully ascertained until Israel delivered an assessment.
Trump said that the US Defense Intelligence Agency, which put together the Fordo assessment, “really don’t know” about the damage, adding: “I think Israel is going to be telling us very soon.”
IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday: “I can say here, the assessment is that we severely damaged the nuclear programme, and pushed it back years.”
This is a developing story
About The Author
