US President Donald Trump said the central reason for the war with Iran is to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, arguing that American strikes have severely damaged the country's military and nuclear capabilities.
In an interview with British journalist Bev Turner on GB News which aired on Thursday, Trump was asked how much of Iran's nuclear material remained after the US strikes. He said three known nuclear sites had been "obliterated" and suggested the US was closely monitoring another location known as Pickaxe Mountain.
"Well, they had three sites and now they may have Pickaxe Mountain. But the three sites have been obliterated. But we have a thing called Space Force, which is very effective, that I started in my first term. Very effective. And we have cameras on every major area of the first three. And we also have cameras on Pickaxe Mountain. And we know everybody that walks in and walks out. We can read the name...so we know everything that's going on. So we're very certain."
Trump said the strikes also protected Britain from a potential Iranian nuclear threat, arguing that Iran could be more likely to use such a weapon against European targets because of its missile capabilities.
"I'm saving your country from the threat, too, because if Iran had a nuclear weapon, they're more likely to use it in Europe, where they do have missile capability, than they are to America where they don't. And I'm saving your country from a problem because they would use it."
The President further stated that Iran had been only weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon and credited his decision during his first term to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the JCPOA, with delaying Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
"They were two weeks, maybe four weeks away from having a nuclear weapon. And we attacked them with the bombers. I also did something else in my first term. I ended the Obama, the JCPOA - that's the agreement, the Obama nuclear disaster, where it was basically a short road to a nuclear weapon. And they would have had a nuclear weapon five years ago if I didn't terminate that. I terminated the deal. But then, very importantly, a year and a couple of months ago, we attacked them at those three big sites where they had lots of nuclear dust, I call it. It's material that will could easily be turned into a nuclear weapon. It went through the whole process and it's now buried under millions of tons of mountain, and will be very hard to get to."
Trump said his objective in the Middle East was specifically to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, while describing the region as having a long history of conflict.
"The Middle East has "been a problem for 2,000 years. They've been fighting. Look, I'm there because we have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon. And it is the Middle East. And we've done that. We've defeated their Navy. We defeated their Air Force. We've defeated them. Their leaders are gone. Everything is gone."
Discussing the most recent US strikes this week, Trump said American forces had destroyed Iranian radar installations and were maintaining control of the Strait of Hormuz.
"We took out their radar. They just put new radar in," Trump said when referencing the strikes. "We control the Hormuz Strait.We have great control over the Hormuz Strait. We're taking out 30, 40 boats a night and a lot of oil is coming out of there. So we control the Hormuz Strait and their economy is crashing. Their inflation could be 300 percent. Their money is valueless. It's two million to one or something like that. And it's going up every day. So they're in big trouble."
The interview aired a day after Trump said in a conversation with reporters that he did not expect the renewed confrontation with Iran to continue for much longer.
Asked how long the latest escalation would last, Trump responded, “Not too long". He subsequently suggested that Iran could have limited ability to withstand continued American attacks.
“I don’t think it will be very much longer. I don’t know how much more they can take," Trump said of Iran.
Trump also said the US was ready to launch further strikes against Iran if necessary.
“It was a very heavy attack last night, and we are prepared to do another one anytime we want," he stressed.
Later Wednesday, Trump addressed the conflict during an event in the Rose Garden, saying Iran had suffered major losses following the latest US strikes and that its ability to wage war had been severely diminished.
He said the US military campaign was aimed at protecting the Middle East, Israel and the United States from Iran.
“We're doing it to help the Middle East, we're doing it to help Israel, we're doing it to help ourselves, because after they annihilate Israel, which they would've done very gladly, and then the Middle East, then they come after Europe and they come after some of our cities before we put them away."