US President Donald Trump said that Iran wants to negotiate after fresh US retaliatory strikes, but questioned whether Tehran could be trusted to honour any agreement, saying Washington would continue responding forcefully while keeping its focus on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"We hit back much harder," Trump said on Wednesday (local time). Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington after the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump said the United States had responded after attacks on commercial vessels.
"They just we just hit it very hard, and I say we hit them 20 to 1; every time they hit us, we're going to hit them 20. And we did it last night; we did a little something today, but it was really retribution for last night they hit actually three boats, not two, and when they hit we hit back much harder," Trump said.
Asked whether the exchange marked a return to full-scale military conflict, Trump said, "I don't know, I don't know," but added that Washington had several options. "We have many ways we can win, but we've already won militarily; they have very little left, and they want to make a deal so badly they called a little while ago they want to make a deal so badly I just don't know if they're worthy of making a deal," he said.
"I don't know that they're going to honour the deal; that's the problem," Trump said. Asked why Iran would attack commercial vessels if it wanted a deal, Trump said, "Because it's not crazy, to be honest with you, it's so crazy they're a little bit out of control, but they want to make a deal badly."
Trump said the confrontation was centred on denying Iran nuclear weapons. "It was a de-nuking of Iran, denuclearisation of Iran, so, this is all about taking nuclear weapons, not allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons. And everybody should like that even you," he said.
Trump also dismissed suggestions that a last-minute aircraft change before leaving Turkey was caused by a specific security concern. He said the switch was made so personnel at the air base could view the plane. Asked whether there had been any credible Iranian threat against Air Force One, Trump said, "All the time I'm number one on their list."
Trump described the NATO summit as successful and said the alliance had shown unity after earlier strains over defence spending. "It was a very, very good meeting and people understand that the United States is and we've been treated very unfairly," he said.
"The meeting today settled a lot of things," Trump added. He said future US troop decisions in Europe would depend partly on developments involving Greenland and Iran. He also said allies who had earlier declined to help were now eager to assist on Iran.
"They all want to go, and they want to help on Iran so badly, but I don't really need help," Trump said. Syria, Hezbollah discussed Trump also praised Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, saying he had "done a great job" and had "unified Syria." Asked whether al-Sharaa had made commitments on Hezbollah in Lebanon, Trump replied, "He did," but declined to provide details.
He also said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "was great" during their meeting. The latest comments came amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran after military exchanges and attacks on commercial shipping. The Trump administration has said its objective is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, while using military, diplomatic and economic pressure to force Tehran to change course.