Trump compares Iran strikes to Hiroshima
President Donald Trump has compared recent US airstrikes on Iran to its World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Speaking to reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday, Trump claimed the US strikes on Iran effectively ended their hostilities with Israel.
“I don’t want to use an example of Hiroshima. I don’t want to use an example of Nagasaki. But that was essentially the same thing. That ended that war. This ended the war,” he said.
“If we didn’t take that out, they would have been, they’d be fighting right now,” the US president added.
Trump blasted “fake news” for allegedly diminishing the impact of the US bombing of Iran.
“You have some great reporters, but you have scum,” he said, pointing the finger at CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times. “They’re bad people. They’re sick.”
The US carried out unprecedented strikes on three major Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend, supporting Israel in its 12-day campaign against Iran. Trump has since announced a ceasefire between the two sides and declared the facilities “totally obliterated.” Iran denies that its civil domestic nuclear program was destroyed, and insists that it will continue using the technology for peaceful purposes.
On Tuesday, multiple outlets cited a classified, preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report that said the US airstrikes may have only set the Iranian nuclear program back by months.
According to CNN, which referenced sources familiar with the intelligence, Iran’s underground centrifuges used to enrich uranium remained largely intact. The assessment also reportedly indicated that Tehran’s stockpile of fissile material was likely relocated to secure locations before the strikes.
The Islamic Republic will reconsider its stance on Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty cooperation, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said. As “20 years of transparency and trust-building regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear program have not yielded positive results,” the issue needs to be considered, he told the New Arab in an interview.
Tehran has devoted significant effort toward its peaceful nuclear energy program, and will not stop developing it, the top diplomat said.
