“Iran has been acting very badly. They were decimated. Their nuclear capability - which could have happened within three or four weeks - was decimated. It's been obliterated. The Atomic Energy Commission said the place is just decimated,” Trump told Rudaw during a press briefing.
US strikes hit Iran’s three main nuclear sites last month. Trump has repeatedly said that the attacks “obliterated” the sites but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has claimed that Trump has exaggerated the destruction.
Washington on June 24 brokered a ceasefire to the 12-day war between Israel and Iran. Iran and the US had held five rounds of Oman-mediated indirect nuclear talks before Israel attacked the Islamic republic, which effectively ended the negotiations, especially after Trump joined in striking Iran.
“Now, they can start again, but they'd have to start on different sites because they were hit. I tell you what, the job these pilots did with their B-2 bombers - those unbelievable machines - they traveled 36 hours without stop, and they hit every single target... we shot 30 rockets from submarines that were hundreds of miles away, and they hit every target.” added the US president.
“So they can start again, but they haven’t been saying the right thing. I will say, Iran has not been saying the right thing. They have not been speaking nicely, and they should be,” he noted.
Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers - formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - Iran agreed to curb its nuclear enrichment program in exchange for much-needed relief from crippling sanctions.
Iranian foreign minister said earlier this month that “maybe the current administration doesn't like that, but we can come to a similar deal, a better deal than that.”
