Trump likens U.S. strikes on Iran to bombings of Hiroshima, Nagasaki

Kyodo News

8 hours ago

KYODO NEWS - 10 hours ago - 02:40 | All, World
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday equated the American military's weekend airstrikes on Iran's key nuclear facilities with the World War II atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, saying the result in both cases was a swift end to conflict.
"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," Trump told reporters while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in The Hague.
Trump made the comments as he dismissed a leaked U.S. intelligence report suggesting in an early assessment that the impact of the strikes on Iran's nuclear program was limited.
He stressed that the attacks ended the Israel-Iran conflict, saying the two countries would still be fighting if the United States had not bombed the nuclear facilities.
His comments, justifying the world's first use of nuclear weapons on a civilian population, provoked an angry outcry from survivors of the bombings of the Japanese cities by U.S. forces in 1945.
"I'm really disappointed. All I have is anger," said Teruko Yokoyama, 83, a senior member of Nihon Hidankyo, Japan's leading atomic bomb survivors' group that was named the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Trump has said the Iranian nuclear sites were "obliterated," but the intel assessment reported by U.S. media says the strikes only set back Iran's nuclear capabilities by a few months.
Asserting that the intelligence is "very inconclusive," the U.S. leader said he believes Iran's nuclear program has been put back "basically decades" and he does not think it will ever carry out its uranium enrichment efforts.
"The intelligence says, 'We don't know. It could have been very severe.' That's what the intelligence says," Trump said.
He also claimed the United States is "actually getting along with (Iran) very well right now."
Later, at a press conference following the NATO summit, he said the United States plans to hold talks with Iran next week, adding, "We may sign an agreement."
But he also said an agreement is not a must.
"The only thing we'd be asking for is what we were asking for before, about we want no nuclear," he said.
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