President Donald Trump announced Wednesday at the NATO conference that ceasefire negotiations with Iran are "moving forward excellently" while commending Israel's operational successes. "I'm proud of them... they brought their planes back," Trump stated, highlighting the effectiveness of Israel's military campaign.
The American president emphasized that "the last thing they want to do now is enrich. They're focused on recovery." He questioned, "Can you imagine after all that, that they're going to say 'Oh, let's go do a bomb'?"
Trump acknowledged that while the ceasefire "represented a victory for Iran as well – they still have their nation," he stressed that Israel endured significant attacks. "Israel took severe hits from those ballistic missiles. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserves recognition," he remarked.
Nuclear capabilities pushed back decades
The American president provided additional details about Iran's assessment of the damage, revealing that "Iran went down to the site afterwards. If that thing was devastated, they would have never settled," Trump elaborated, "they said it's so devastated... they said 'the place is gone.'"
He continued, "It was obliteration. Israel is doing a report on that now, they have guys that go in there after the hit." Shortly after his comments, the White House released a statement from Israel's Atomic Energy Commission saying that "the devastating US strike on Fordo destroyed the site's critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable." It also noted that according to the Israeli assessment, "the American strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran's military nuclear program, has set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years." The statement concluded with, "This achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material."
Trump asserted confidently that Iran's nuclear ambitions have been set back decades. "I don't think they'll ever do it again. I think they're going to take their oil... I think they've had it. They just went through hell."
Trump declared optimistically, "We're actually getting along with them very well right now. That hit ended the war."
As analysis of US and Israeli airstrikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities continues, two Israeli sources told ABC News it is too early to declare the operation a success.
One source downplayed the damage at the Fordo uranium enrichment facility – built hundreds of feet under a mountain southwest of Tehran – saying the outcome there is "really not good."
The sources said they do not know how much enriched uranium may have been moved from the sites in advance of the Israeli and American strikes, or how many centrifuges – used to enrich uranium – are left and can be made operational in the country. To establish such details could take months, one source said, or prove impossible.
The American president also linked the Iranian operation to Gaza hostage negotiations, claiming that good news is about to emerge because of "the attack that we [US] made." Addressing separate developments, he mentioned that "Special Envoy for Middle East Steve Witkoff told me that Gaza is very close," referencing the hostage agreement.
When reporters asked whether America would launch additional strikes if Iran attempted to rebuild its nuclear infrastructure, Trump responded decisively, "Sure."
