Washington: US President Donald Trump defended US military operations linked to Iran and insisted Tehran\u2019s military capabilities had been severely damaged.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while travelling to Anchorage, Alaska, Trump said, \u201cWe had a total military victory,\u201d claiming the United States had destroyed Iran\u2019s naval and air assets and degraded missile production facilities.<\/p>\n
Trump also mentioned that he had agreed to the ceasefire despite reservations, describing it as a move requested by other nations, including Pakistan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really did the cease-fire at the request of other nations. I wouldn\u2019t have really been in favour of it\u2026\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the ceasefire, Trump did not elaborate on the exact nature of Pakistan\u2019s involvement, but his comments came during a wide-ranging interaction dominated by discussions on Iran, China, Taiwan and global security issues.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Trump suggested that diplomatic channels remained open. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping shared Washington\u2019s position that Iran should not possess nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe feels strongly they can\u2019t have a nuclear weapon,\u201d Trump said while describing his recent talks with Xi.<\/p>\n
Trump also said the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively under US control following military operations in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve done no business \u2014 literally, they\u2019ve done no business in the last two and a half weeks,\u201d he said, referring to Iranian-linked shipping activity through the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n
During the exchange, Trump indicated he was still considering future military options against Iran if required.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say this with very, very strong conviction, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, not going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The President additionally revealed that discussions with China covered artificial intelligence cooperation, Taiwan tensions, trade and denuclearisation.<\/p>\n
On Taiwan, Trump said Xi opposed any move towards Taiwanese independence and warned against confrontation. Trump added that he had made \u201cno commitment either way\u201d regarding future US policy.<\/p>\n
(IANS)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington: US President Donald Trump defended US military operations linked to Iran and insisted Tehran\u2019s military capabilities had been severely damaged. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while travelling to Anchorage, Alaska, Trump said, \u201cWe had a total military victory,\u201d claiming the United States had destroyed Iran\u2019s naval and air assets and degraded missile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/202605163789746-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53976,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53974\/revisions\/53976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenftimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}