Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday compared Washington's recent strikes on Iran to the 1945 bombings of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"I do not want to use an example of Nagasaki, but that was essentially the same thing that ended that war. This ended [the Israel-Iran] war. If we did not take that out, they would still be fighting right now" Trump said on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on June 13, when Israel launched a large-scale operation against Iran, accusing it of implementing a secret military nuclear program. Tehran retaliated by launching Operation True Promise III, hitting military targets inside Israel. On June 22, the US struck three Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, joining Israel's campaign against Iran. Trump said after the attack that Tehran "must now agree to end this war" or face far more serious consequences.
On Monday, Iran launched a missile strike on the US's Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in response to the US attack. The strike resulted in zero casualties, as all the missiles apart from one were intercepted. Trump said late on Monday that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire. On Tuesday, Trump said that the ceasefire between Iran and Israel was now in effect.
Iran denies the military dimension of its nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has not seen concrete evidence that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program, Director General Rafael Grossi said on June 18.
In August 1945, the US dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The explosions and their aftermath killed 140,000 of the 350,000 people in Hiroshima and 74,000 in Nagasaki. The vast majority of the victims of the atomic bombings were civilians.
