United States President Donald Trump has declared a “victory for everybody” as the ceasefire that ended 12 days of fighting between Iran and Israel continues to hold, despite uncertainty over the effectiveness of US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
Trump, speaking in The Hague where he attended a NATO summit on Wednesday, said his decision to join Israel’s attacks by targeting Iranian nuclear sites with huge bunker-busting bombs had ended the war, calling it “a victory for everybody”.
He shrugged off an initial assessment by the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that Iran’s path to building a nuclear weapon may have been set back only by months, saying the findings were “inconclusive” and he believed the sites had been destroyed.
“It was very severe. It was obliteration,” he said.
“The intelligence was very inconclusive,” Trump told reporters while meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte before the summit.
“The intelligence says, ‘We don’t know, it could have been very severe.’ That’s what the intelligence says. So I guess that’s correct, but I think we can take the ‘we don’t know’. It was very severe. It was obliteration,” Trump added.
“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,” Trump said.
Trump also said that Washington would likely seek a commitment from Tehran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks with Iranian officials next week.
However, Iran’s parliament approved a bill on Wednesday to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), state-affiliated news outlet Nournews reported.
The move, which needs the final approval of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to be enforced according to Nournews, follows an air war with Israel in which its longtime enemy said it wanted to prevent Tehran developing a nuclear weapon.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was quoted by state media as also saying Iran would accelerate its civilian nuclear programme.
Separately, Nato leaders on Wednesday backed the big increase in defence spending that US President Donald Trump had demanded, and restated their commitment to defend each other from attack after a brief summit in the Netherlands.
While Trump got what he wanted at the annual meeting, tailor-made for him, his Nato allies will be relieved that he committed to the fundamental principle of collective defence after less clear-cut language on Tuesday.
Trump told a press conference that “we had a great victory here”, adding that he hoped that the additional funds would be spent on military hardware made in the US.
However, he threatened to punish Spain after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez declared it could meet its commitments to Nato while spending much less than the new target of 5% of GDP.
“I think it’s terrible. You know, they [Spain] are doing very well … And that economy could be blown right out of the water when something bad happens,” Trump said, adding that Spain would get a tougher trade deal from the US than other European Union countries.
In a five-point statement, Nato endorsed the higher defence spending goal – a response not only to Trump but also to Europeans’ fears that Russia poses a growing threat to their security following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The 32 allies’ brief communique added: “We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – that an attack on one is an attack on all.”
Asked to clarify his own stance on Article 5 after recent ambiguous comments, Trump said: “I stand with it. That’s why I’m here. If I didn’t stand with it, I wouldn’t be here.”