President Trump and Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in separate interviews on Sunday that the war against Iran was not over, seeming to undermine messaging from the Trump administration last week that the conflict had run its course.<\/p>\n
The interviews further compounded confusion about a military campaign marked by shifting goals and messaging since the American-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump, in an interview released by the syndicated news show \u201cFull Measure,\u201d said Iran had been defeated militarily. Yet when asked if it was accurate to say that combat operations were \u201cover and done,\u201d he refuted that assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I didn\u2019t say that,\u201d Mr. Trump said, adding that Iran was \u201cdefeated, but that doesn\u2019t mean they are done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump estimated that about 70 percent of the United States\u2019 targets in Iran had been hit. \u201cWe could go in for two more weeks and do every single target,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu also told CBS\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d in an interview that the conflict was not over, laying out a longer list of unfinished business to address.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still nuclear material, enriched uranium, that has to be taken out of Iran,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said. \u201cThere\u2019s still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled. There are still proxies that Iran supports. There are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Netanyahu added that an agreement with Iran to remove its enriched uranium would be the ideal method to ensure the country no longer has materials for a nuclear weapon. The fate of that nuclear material has been one of the key sticking points in U.S.-Iran peace talks, according to Iranian officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it can be done physically, that\u2019s not the problem,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said. He added, \u201cIf you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That\u2019s the best way.\u201d<\/p>\n He declined to discuss military options for removing the enriched uranium should there be no such deal with Iran.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump appeared somewhat less intent on the issue, despite its being a driving force behind the war. He said that the United States was surveilling Iran\u2019s remaining enriched uranium stockpile and that it would \u201cget that at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump has said that the war was meant to ensure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon, and has boasted about bombing its nuclear sites last summer. But he has also at times offered mixed messages about Tehran\u2019s stockpile of near-bomb-grade uranium, which international inspectors say is likely buried at those sites.<\/p>\n Last month, Mr. Trump said he didn\u2019t care<\/a> about the enriched uranium because it was so far underground. On Sunday, he said the United States was monitoring the situation. \u201cWe have that very well surveilled,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anyone got near the place we will know about it and we will blow them up.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatever gaps there may be between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu on the war and its goals, both of their interviews appeared to undermine statements made by Trump administration officials last week that the conflict had essentially concluded.<\/p>\n Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week told reporters<\/a> that the war had ended at some point after the cease-fire took hold in April. \u201cThe Operation Epic Fury is concluded,\u201d he said, using the name the Trump administration had branded the war<\/a>. \u201cWe achieved the objective of that operation.\u201d<\/p>\n Declaring the war finished served multiple purposes for the Trump administration: The White House claimed there was therefore no need to seek congressional approval for the continued use of the armed forces, as required after 60 days of conflict under the War Powers Resolution. It also followed attempts by Mr. Trump and the administration to downplay<\/a> the extent of the conflict, which is wreaking havoc on the global economy and meeting resistance among some Republicans in Mr. Trump\u2019s base.<\/p>\n But the declaration came as missiles continued to fly across the Gulf region and as the Strait of Hormuz remained choked, with Iran threatening commercial ships in the vital waterway as the United States blockades Iranian ports in an effort to pressure the country.<\/p>\n Erica L. Green, Aaron Boxerman and Adam Sella contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Trump and Israel\u2019s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in separate interviews on Sunday that the war against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16469],"tags":[40106,18022,244,13624,34,243,13531,2316,74,17,13623,17647],"class_list":{"0":"post-68944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-benjamin-netanyahu","8":"tag-arms-control-and-limitation-and-disarmament","9":"tag-benjamin","10":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","11":"tag-donald-j","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-netanyahu","15":"tag-nuclear-weapons","16":"tag-trump","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-international-relations","19":"tag-united-states-politics-and-government"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116565891063627304","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}