Trump hints at Gaza truce, says Iran strikes set nuclear program back ‘decades’

US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities set Iran’s nuke program back decades, President Donald Trump claims, adding that strikes led to the end of Iran-Israel war and hints at an end to Gaza war in the near future.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

US President Donald Trump pushed back Wednesday on reports downplaying the impact of American airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program, while hinting that the attacks may lead to an end to the war in Gaza.

Trump spoke with reporters during a NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday morning, a day after a ceasefire went into effect between Israel and Iran following 12 days of hostilities.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who accompanied the president, lashed out at the anonymous sources cited by multiple media outlets on Tuesday and Wednesday that claimed that the US strikes on the Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz nuclear facilities did only modest damage to Iran’s nuclear program, setting it back by mere months.

“Complete and total obliteration,” Rubio said of the three Iranian facilities.

“They are in bad shape compared to where they were just seven days ago because of what the president did.”

Rubio cited International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi, who highlighted the damage to Iran’s nuclear program, while accusing officials who leaked American intelligence assessments of the strikes of both breaking the law and twisting the estimates of the airstrikes’ impact.

Trump echoed Rubio’s comments, while castigating major news outlets for their reports questioning the extent of the damage to the Iranian nuclear program.

“CNN is scum, MSDNC is scum, the New York Times is scum… they are trying to make this unbelievably victory something less,” Trump said.

“Iran went down to the site afterwards, they said ‘It is so devastated’”.

Disputing claims by anonymous leakers who argued that US intelligence assessments pointed to limited damage to Iran’s nuclear program, Trump said the initial reports were “inconclusive.”

“The intelligence was very inconclusive. The intelligence says that we don’t know. It could have been very severe. That is what the intelligence says. I guess that is correct. But it was very severe, it was obliteration.”

The president argued that the strikes played a decisive role in convincing Iran to agree to end the war with Israel.

“Frankly, if we didn’t do that, they would have had a lot of ammunition to keep going, they would not have settled.”

Trump also claimed that Fordow, Iran’s uranium enrichment facility built inside of a mountain under roughly 300 feet of rock, was demolished, setting the country’s nuclear program back by “decades,” rather than months.

“Two Iranians went to see it and said ‘This place is gone’.”

Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by “basically decades. I think they’ll never do it again.”

Iran, Trump continued, has likely been deterred from pursuing further uranium enrichment.

“I think they’re going to take their oil and they’re going to have their missiles and have some defense – I think they’ve had it.”

“The last thing they want to do is enrich [uranium].”

“When you look at a site like that, very, very hard to build.”

“They spent trillions of dollars to do this thing and didn’t come up with it, and we’re actually getting along with them very well right now.”

“That hit ended the war.”

Trump compared the precision bombings of Iran’s nuclear program to the US atomic bombings of Japanese cities in World War II, saying in both cases the attacks led to the cessation of hostilities.

“I don’t want to use the example of Hiroshima, of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing. It ended that war, this ended this war. If we didn’t take that out, they’d still be fighting the war.”

The president reiterated previous claims that that the nuclear facilities, including Fordow, were “obliterated” in the strikes.

“It was obliteration… and it is going to come out. Israel is doing a report right now, I understand… they said it was ‘total obliteration’.”

“They have guys who go in there after the hit and they say it was ‘total obliteration’”.

In addition to prompting the end of the war between Israel and Iran, Trump hinted that the American strikes could lead to a truce ending the war in Gaza.

“I think great progress is being made on Gaza.”

When asked whether the attacks would lead to the release of hostages from Gaza, Trump said they could help. “I think that it helped a little bit, it showed a lot of power. I think it helped.”

“Because of this attack that we made, I think we’re going to have some very good news,” Trump said, adding that White House Special Snvoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff was optimistic about a major development in the Gaza war following the conflict in Iran.

“He told me that Gaza is very close.”