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Trump says US hit ended Iran-Israel war, uses ‘Hiroshima, Nagasaki’ example
Asked about Iran's nuclear program, Trump said Tehran "went through hell" during the 12-day war.
United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday attempted to hog credit for ending the 12-day Israel-Iran war, claiming the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites essentially ended the hostilities that wreaked severe damage to civilian properties and lives on both sides. He controversially compared last week's strikes with the US nuclear strikes on Japan in 1945, which obliterated the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Asked about Iran's nuclear program, Trump said Tehran “went through hell” during the 12-day war, which forced it to forgo its nuclear weapon ambitions.
"I don't think they will ever do it again. They will take their oil, they will take their missiles and have their defence... I think they have had it. They just went through hell. The last thing they would want to do is enrich. They had been trying to enrich... by the way, it is hard to enrich. They spent trillions of dollars trying to do this thing, but they couldn't come up with this," he told reporters in The Hague.
He said the US and Iran were getting along well.
"We are actually getting along with them very well right now. Had we not succeeded in that hit... that hit ended the war...I don't want to use the example of Hiroshima, I don't want to use an example of Nagasaki, but it is essentially the same thing – that thing ended that war, this thing ended this war," he said.
Also read: Iran-Israel ceasefire holds after brief setbacks, Trump's outburst | How Day 1 went
What happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing over 2 lakh people, most of whom were civilians. Days after the strikes, the Japanese government announced unconditional surrender to the Allied forces, ending the protracted World War 2. The strikes remain the only use of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict.
Trump on US strikes
Trump disputed an intelligence report that found the airstrikes he ordered on Iran had only a limited impact on its nuclear program, even though the assessment came from the Pentagon, reported Bloomberg.
“The nuclear sites in Iran are completely destroyed,” Trump said on Truth Social. He said CNN and the New York Times, which first reported the intelligence findings on Tuesday, “have teamed up in an attempt to demean one of the most successful military strikes in history."
Iran-Israel war
Israel started the war by bombing Iranian nuclear sites and killing the country's top nuclear scientists. It said it wanted to end Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.
Iran said it had been enriching uranium only for peaceful purposes and not for acquiring nuclear weapons.
For 12 days, both Iran and Israel launched salvos at each other.
Last week, Trump ordered strikes on atomic sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. He later claimed the strikes "totally obliterated" their targets.
Trump brokered a ceasefire to end the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran that appeared to be holding on Wednesday. The president had lashed out at both countries Tuesday, and particularly Israel, over what he said were early violations of the truce.
