Strikes destroyed Iran’s N-sites, it’s victory for all, claims Trump

‘Will talk with Iran next week’

As the ceasefire holds, US President Trump has declared “victory for everyone” and compared the impact of American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites to the end of World War Two on Wednesday, arguing that the damage was severe even though available intelligence reports were inconclusive.

His comments followed reports revealing that the US Defense Intelligence Agency had assessed that the strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear program by just a few months, despite Trump and administration officials saying it had been obliterated.

“The intelligence was ... very inconclusive,” Trump told reporters at a NATO summit on Wednesday.

“It was very severe. It was obliteration.” The Trump administration has not disputed that the DIA assessment exists, but Trump described it as preliminary.

In a series of at-times testy exchanges at a press conference later in the day, Trump sharply criticised journalists for their reporting on the assessment.

Trump said the US strikes were responsible for ending the war between Israel and Iran. “When you look at Hiroshima, if you look at Nagasaki, that ended a war, too,” Trump said.

His right-leaning supporters had argued loudly beforehand that such military intervention was inconsistent with Trump’s domestic-focused “Make America Great Again” agenda and his promise to avoid foreign entanglements.

Trump has countered by insisting that Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon - a goal that an accurate, decisive attack would support.

Asked if doing so could reduce economic pressure on Iran at a delicate time, Trump responded, “They’re going to need money to put that country back into shape...we’re going to talk with them next week,” Trump said.

He said he did not think Iran would want to get back into “the nuclear business” after the strikes.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the country's nuclear facilities had been “badly damaged” in American strikes over the weekend.

Speaking on Al Jazeera, Baghaei refused to go into detail but conceded the strikes on Sunday by American B-2 bombers had been significant. “Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that’s for sure,” he said.

President Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate elected last year in a challenge to years of dominance by hardliners, said the atmosphere of national solidarity during the attacks would spur domestic reform.