United States President Donald Trump has once again vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, reiterating longstanding talking points despite mounting questions over the effectiveness of recent American airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Speaking on Fox News programme Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump claimed that Iran was merely “weeks away” from building a nuclear weapon prior to Israel’s military action on June 13 — a conflict that lasted 12 days and saw direct US military involvement targeting Iran’s top nuclear sites.
The US launched strikes on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan facilities nine days after Israel’s initial attack. President Trump claimed the strikes had “obliterated” the sites and “set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions by decades.”
However, those assertions have been contradicted by recent assessments from both US intelligence agencies and the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA has stated it is still unclear how much damage was sustained at Fordow — the underground facility that houses a large portion of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, speaking on Sunday, warned that Iran could restart uranium enrichment activities within months. According to the agency’s latest figures, Iran possesses more than 400kg of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity — a level just shy of weapons-grade and theoretically sufficient for manufacturing up to nine nuclear weapons if further enriched.
Tehran has consistently denied pursuing nuclear arms, asserting that its programme is strictly for civilian purposes.
Trump, however, rejected the credibility of media reports and intelligence assessments casting doubt on the success of the strikes. He accused news organisations of spreading “fake news,” asserting that claims of limited damage were “horrible” fabrications.
“They tried to build that into a story, but then it turned out, no, it was obliterated like nobody has ever seen before,” Trump said. “That meant the end to their nuclear ambitions — at least for a period of time.”
Addressing concerns that Iran might revive its nuclear programme in the wake of the strikes, the US president said: “The last thing they want to do right now is think about nuclear.”
Reports during the attack suggested that Iran had moved its enriched uranium stockpile out of Fordow ahead of the strike. Trump dismissed those accounts as false, asserting that the US had given no advance notice of the attacks.
“It’s a very hard thing to do, plus we didn’t give them much notice because they didn’t know we were coming,” he said. “Nobody thought we would go after that site because everybody said it was impenetrable — it’s at the bottom of a mountain and it’s granite.”
Trump added, “[But] the bomb went through it like butter.”
Trade and TikTok ban
Separately, the US president also touched on trade matters during the interview, stating that ongoing trade talks with Canada would be paused unless Ottawa withdrew its newly imposed digital services tax, which targets both foreign and domestic technology firms.
In reference to China, Trump said that although the US maintains a significant trade deficit with Beijing, current relations are stable. “We’re getting along,” he said.
The president also claimed to have secured a buyer for the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, which has been under threat of a US ban. Trump said the deal involved a group of “very wealthy people” and would be revealed within two weeks. He has extended the deadline for the ban for a third time, giving the parties an additional 90 days.
