Trump reiterates vow to block Iran's nuclear ambitions, claims US strikes 'obliterated' key sites

Washington [US], June 30 (ANI): United States President Donald Trump has reiterated his vow not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, following the conclusion of a 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel that saw direct US military intervention, Al Jazeera reported.

Speaking on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Trump repeated his claim that Iran was "weeks away" from producing nuclear weapons before Israel's June 13 attack. He said that nine days later, the US carried out strikes on Iran's top three nuclear sites--Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. While Trump insisted the facilities were "obliterated," Al Jazeera noted that several media reports, citing intelligence sources, have suggested otherwise.

Both US intelligence agencies and the UN nuclear watchdog have found no evidence that Iran was actively building a nuclear arsenal. Iran has consistently maintained that its nuclear programme is intended solely for civilian purposes, Al Jazeera reported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stated on Monday that it remains unclear what level of damage was inflicted on the Fordow plant, which houses much of Iran's highly enriched uranium. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Sunday that Iran could resume uranium enrichment within months, while Trump claimed the US strikes had set Iran's nuclear ambitions back "by decades."

According to an IAEA report last month, Iran holds over 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent purity--just short of weapons-grade--enough, if further enriched, to produce nine nuclear bombs.

Trump dismissed reports questioning the success of the strikes as "fake news," telling Fox News, "It's just horrible and I could see it happening, and they [news outlets] tried to build that into a story, but then it turned out, no, it was obliterated like nobody has ever seen before and that meant the end to their nuclear ambitions at least for a period of time."

On the possibility of Iran restarting its nuclear programme, Trump said, "The last thing they want to do right now is think about nuclear."

Addressing claims that Iran had moved enriched uranium out of Fordow prior to the strikes, Trump said the reports were false. "It's a very hard thing to do, plus we didn't give them much notice... and nobody thought we would go after that site because everybody said that site was impenetrable... it's at the bottom of a mountain and it's granite," he said, adding, "[But] the bomb went through it like butter, like it was absolute butter."

Separately, Trump told Fox News that the United States would halt trade talks with Canada until it drops its new digital services tax. He also commented on US-China relations, stating that despite a large trade deficit, the two countries were currently "getting along."

Trump added that a buyer has been found for TikTok, a social media platform he has repeatedly targeted. He said the buyer is a group of "very wealthy people" whose identity would be revealed in two weeks, following an extension of the app's ban for another 90 days, Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)