Attacking Iran has achieved nothing, according to Donald Trump, who evaded questions from reporters Tuesday as to whether or not the Middle Eastern country had made commitments about uranium enrichment.
“They’re not going to have enrichment and they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon, and they know that,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “They’re going to get on to being a great trading nation. You know, they’re very good traders and they’re gonna be a great trading nation. And they have a lot of oil.”
Trump directed airstrikes without congressional approval on Iran’s nuclear facilities Saturday. The attack damaged facilities in Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan, with damage estimates expected to be “very significant,” according to International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Grossi.
Iran has argued that it is seeking uranium for peaceful purposes, such as expanding its nuclear energy program. It has undergone years of nuclear site inspections by the IAEA, and as of last week was allowing IAEA inspectors to remain in the country, according to Grossi.
The only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East is presumed to be Israel, which will not confirm or deny possessing what the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons estimates are approximately 90 nuclear weapons.
Trump insisted Tuesday that “the last thing on Iran’s mind right now is nuclear weapons.”
At least 606 people have been killed in Iran since Israel first attacked on June 13, according to Iran’s health ministry. Approximately 107 people died on Monday alone, making it the deadliest single day of the conflict.
Trump announced a successful ceasefire between Iran and Israel Monday evening, before the two nations had jointly come to an agreement on the terms of ending their conflict. Hours after the ceasefire deadline had passed, the two nations continued lobbing missiles at one another.
“We basically—we have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” Trump told reporters at the White House earlier Tuesday before he set off for a NATO summit at The Hague, where rifts are expected to widen over defense spending and a dampening American interest in defending Ukraine against Russia.
Trump won in November in no small part due to his campaign pledges to end the wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, but just six months into his second term, he has instigated a third war while failing to resolve the first pair, earning the ire of some of his longest and staunchest defenders, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie.
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