By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on Monday told CBS News that he is convinced Iran has no nuclear capability following US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June.
“They (the Iranians) have no nuclear capability, no,” Trump said in an interview published last night when asked if he is certain about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
Iran and the US held five rounds of indirect talks on the Iranian nuclear program, mediated by Oman.
A sixth round, scheduled for June 15, was called off after the outbreak of the “12-day war” between Iran and Israel.
The US military carried out precision strikes on three key Iranian nuclear facilities, mainly Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan on June 22. The strikes were a “spectacular” military success and that Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been “completely and totally obliterated”.
The key part of these strikes were conducted by the B-2 Spirit stealth bombers which dropped GBU-57 bunker busters to penetrate the Fordow enrichment facility located deep inside a mountain, that was beyond the capability of Israel.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff detailed the strikes carried out by the US Central Command (Centcom) under ‘Operation Midnight Hammer’.
Tehran retaliated by attacking the US’s Al Udeid air base in Qatar and subsequently stated it had no intention of further escalating the conflict.
Trump said on June 23 that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire to end the hostilities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that while Iran does not seek direct negotiations with the United States, it considers it possible to reach a nuclear agreement through indirect dialogue.
Iran said that it would rebuild nuclear sites damaged by Israeli and US strikes “stronger than before”, as mediator Oman urged Tehran and Washington to revive stalled diplomacy.
Trump has said the strikes obliterated Iran’s nuclear programme but the full extent of the actual damage remains unknown.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in a visit to the country’s nuclear organization, said Tehran “will build (the destroyed sites) stronger than before”.
“By destroying buildings we will not be set back,” he said in a video posted to his official website, adding that Iranian scientists still had the necessary nuclear know-how.
