As the U.S. amasses warships, bombers, and fighter jets within striking distance of Iran, President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that, despite the U.S. and Israel’s strikes that he said “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program last year, he believes Iran intends to restart its nuclear program and is “working to build” missiles that could reach the U.S.
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During his State of the Union address, Trump said Iran had ignored his warnings not to return to nuclear enrichment and weapons development after he ordered U.S. bombers and a submarine to send deep-penetrating bombs and cruise missiles at Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. Those strikes, launched in June, put the U.S. in direct conflict with Iran, openly joining Israel in trying to destroy Iran’s infrastructure for enriching uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons development.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy but one thing is certain I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror—which they are by far—to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told the joint session of Congress during his hour and 47 minute speech.
In recent weeks, Trump has sent his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to meet with Iranian officials in Geneva to try to hammer out a nuclear deal. Trump has said he will launch another attack on Iran if Tehran doesn’t agree to end its nuclear program. As talks have continued, Trump has ordered an “armada” of Navy warships, fighter jets and bombers within range of Iran. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is in the Arabian Sea, and the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group has steamed from the Atlantic Ocean, where it had helped in the capture of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in January, to the eastern Mediterranean, according to a tracker of the American fleet kept by the U.S. Naval Institute.
Trump threatened to intervene in Iran in January during the deadly suppression of mass protests in Tehran over the government’s handling of an economic downturn. Trump had told Iranian protestors in a Truth Social post on Jan. 13 that “help is on its way.” Iran killed tens of thousands of people in a brutal crackdown on dissent, though Trump claimed that some hangings were canceled after his public threats to attack the country. “They’ve killed at least 32,000 protesters in their own country—they shot a lot of them and hung them,” Trump said Tuesday. “This is some terrible people,” he said of the regime.
On Tuesday, Trump indicated he was considering attacking Iran if it refused to give up its nuclear program and effort to build long range missiles. “They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” he said. “They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, in particular nuclear weapons. … They want to start all over again and are at this moment pursuing their sinister ambitions.” Trump didn’t make public what evidence the U.S. has that Iran has restarted its effort to build nuclear weapons.
Trump seemed open to continuing to talk to Iran in the coming days. “We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon’,” Trump said. “No nation should ever doubt America’s resolve,” he added. “We have the most powerful military on earth.”
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