Speaking at the NATO summit in Turkey on July 9, President Trump first claimed that the ceasefire agreement signed last month was “already over,” but then said he believed the war wouldn’t reignite thanks to U.S. military action.
“I call it that we made Iran de-nuclearize. It’s done. They have no military left,” Trump said.
“Their air force is gone… their ships are gone, 150 ships sunk to the bottom. Their radar is gone, everything is gone.”
Trump insisted that war would not break out again and said U.S. airstrikes on Iran would continue “very soon.”
“Someone just asked me, ‘Do you think you’ll hit them tonight?’ I said, ‘It’s possible. Yeah, it’s possible.'”
Hours after Trump’s remarks, the U.S. Central Command announced another round of airstrikes on Iran, aiming to “further degrade its ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
In response, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei posted on social media, accusing the U.S. of violating the memorandum of understanding and stressing that the U.S. had “undermined the agreement framework through unilateral actions and aggressive attacks against Iran.”
Unlike his earlier criticism of NATO members for refusing to assist the U.S. military campaign in Iran, Trump softened his tone after the final session of this NATO summit, saying “almost all countries performed well” and that “unity” was the theme of the summit.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Every one of those countries likes us; they like each other, too. It’s an amazing unity,” Trump said.
After meeting with Turkish President Erdogan on Tuesday, Trump also noted that, like Turkey, China had earned America’s respect because it never got involved in the Iran war despite its heavy reliance on Middle Eastern oil.
“They (China) never got into this war. They never said, ‘I’m going to send a ship, and then put five destroyers on each side of it.’ They never did that,” Trump said.
“To be honest, everyone did pretty well. You know why? Because they respect our country again.”
During last month’s G7 summit, Trump also thanked China and Russia for maintaining “complete neutrality” during the Iran war, saying it “made things a lot better.”
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has repeatedly stated that since the outbreak of the war, China has been working to stop the fighting and promote peace, contributing a Chinese solution to eliminate war and achieve peace, and playing an important role in further consolidating international consensus, which has been widely welcomed by regional countries and the international community.