President Trump said on Friday that he believed Iran abandoned its nuclear ambitions after recent U.S. and Israeli attacks on its nuclear infrastructure, but warned that he “absolutely” would be willing to bomb the country again if it resumed enriching uranium to a concerning level.
“Time will tell,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House, “But I don’t believe that they’re going to go back into nuclear anytime soon.”
Mr. Trump said such an outcome was unlikely, describing Iran as exhausted from the damage it had suffered and eager to speak with the United States. “Iran wants to meet,” Mr. Trump said.
But in a Truth Social post on Friday, Mr. Trump lashed out at Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, for claiming in remarks to his people that Iran had prevailed in its conflict against Israel and the United States.
Mr. Trump called Mr. Khamenei’s assertion “a lie” and said that he had spared the Iranian leader’s life. He said he “knew EXACTLY” where Mr. Khamenei was sheltered and chose not to attack him or allow Israel to kill him. “I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. Trump also said in the post that he had begun work in recent days “on the possible removal of sanctions, and other things” to help Iran “recover.”
But after Mr. Khamenei’s message of “anger, hatred, and disgust,” he added, he “immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more.”
Mr. Trump fielded questions on Iran during a news conference, alongside Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, to discuss a Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship.
Mr. Trump said it was “a little early” to specify what he might demand in an agreement from Iran to contain its future nuclear activities. But he said he would insist on inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites, conducted by either the International Atomic Energy Agency or “somebody that we respect,” possibly including “ourselves.”
Mr. Trump downplayed concerns from nuclear experts and European officials that Iran may have moved and hidden its stockpile of 400 kilograms, or 880 pounds, of enriched uranium, which the I.A.E.A. has estimated as sufficient to make 10 bombs in less than a year if enriched only somewhat further.
“Nothing was moved from the site,” Mr. Trump said, apparently referring to Iran’s underground enrichment facility at Fordo, one of the three nuclear sites the United States bombed on Saturday. Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies, taken in the days before the American strike, showed 16 cargo trucks positioned near an entrance to Fordo.
An analysis by the Open Source Center in London suggested that Iran may have been preparing the site for a strike.
Mr. Trump said that the trucks were conducting masonry work to reinforce the facility’s concrete bunker, not removing uranium.
“Everything’s down there. It’s under millions of tons of rock,” Mr. Trump said.
If the country did preserve its uranium stockpile, it is possible, some experts say, that with the right equipment Iran could enrich it to bomb-grade purity within weeks or months.
While this month’s attacks likely crippled Iran’s known centrifuge facilities, experts fear that Iran may still retain secret facilities. Asked about that prospect, Mr. Trump said he was not concerned by it.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said in an interview released on Friday that his country would be prepared to ship out its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to another country, or to store it “under I.A.E.A. seal” within Iran.
In return, he said, Iran would want to receive yellowcake, a powdered form of uranium ore that requires extensive enrichment for energy or weapons production.
Speaking to Al-Monitor, a Middle East news site, Mr. Iravani reiterated Iran’s position that it had a right to enrich uranium on its own soil for what he called peaceful purposes.
Jonathan Swan is a White House reporter for The Times, covering the administration of Donald J. Trump. Contact him securely on Signal: @jonathan.941
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
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