US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran’s military has been “totally destroyed” and only has around 21% of its missile capacity left after US-Israeli strikes, during an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker on Friday.
“We know where their drones are, and we know where their drone factories are. Most of the drone factories have been knocked out… and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out,” Trump asserted.
When asked if he knew exactly how many missiles and drones Iran still holds, Trump said he did not want to tell Welker but that he knows “almost to the number” how many of such weapons remain in Tehran’s hands.
“They have some missiles. They have some drones,” Trump stated, adding that percentage-wise, Iran maintains “maybe 21%, 22% of their missiles.”
He clarified that the percentage is still “a lot of missiles,” but it is greatly less than what Iran had before US-Israeli strikes began on February 28.
When asked why the US and Iran have not yet reached a peace deal after rounds of negotiations, Trump attributed the prolonged process to Iranian leadership being “proud.”
“I think they can’t believe they’re in the situation where they’ve been virtually decapitated,” Trump stated. “They’re proud. There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice.”
On Wednesday, Trump claimed to reporters at the White House that negotiations between the US and Iran are “going well.”
“It might not happen,” Trump said in reference to a possible final agreement, before adding that “it could happen over the weekend.”
He stated that while it would be “very easy” for the US military to renew strikes against Iran, he would rather “get something down in writing which will accomplish the same thing without killing everybody.”
Reuters and Tzvi Jasper contributed to this report.
