- NATO backs action, praises US, Israel
The United States (US) President Donald Trump says the country is already “substantially ahead” of its time projections in the ongoing military campaign in Iran
He says the initial projection was about four-five weeks at the beginning, but adds they have “capability to go far longer”.
Laying out US objectives in Iran, President Trump said: “First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, and you see that happening on an hourly basis. And their capacity to produce brand new ones and pretty good ones they make.
Second, we’re annihilating their navy. We’ve knocked out already ten ships. They’re at the bottom of the sea.
Third, we’re ensuring that the world’s number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon, never going to have a nuclear weapon. I said that from the beginning. They’re never going to have a nuclear weapon. They were in the road to getting one legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country.
And finally, we’re ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.
And we thought we had a deal. But then they backed out and they came back and we thought we had a deal and they backed out. I said, you can’t deal with these people. You got to do it the right way.”
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General, Mark Rutte on Monday praised US and Israeli military action against Iran, saying it was degrading Tehran’s ability to get its hands on nuclear and ballistic missile capability.
However, he said NATO itself would not be involved in the ongoing military conflict in the Gulf region.
“It’s really important what the US is doing here, together with Israel, because it is taking out, degrading the capacity of Iran to get its hands on nuclear capability, the ballistic missile capability,” he told Germany’s ARD television in Brussels.
“There are absolutely no plans whatever for NATO to get dragged into this or being part of it, other than individual allies doing what they can to enable what the Americans are doing together with Israel,” he added – With The Guardian report
