US President on ending the war with Iran: “We are not ready to stop yet”

On Tuesday, March 17, answering a journalist’s question about a plan for Iran’s reconstruction “the day after” the war, US President Donald Trump avoided a direct answer, but reiterated that if the United States ceases hostilities, Iran will need 10 years to recover.

“We’re not ready to stop yet, but we will stop in… the very near future,” Trump said.

Trump also expressed his disappointment in NATO due to the refusal of alliance members to comply with the US request for help.

When asked whether NATO member countries should expect any consequences for refusing to support the US call, Trump replied: “I don’t have anything like that on my mind at the moment.”

When Trump was asked if he was worried about Iran’s warnings that the US ground operation would turn into something like the Vietnam War, he said: “I’m really not afraid of anything.”

Rump previously said that most NATO allies rejected his request for help in ensuring the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, blocked by Iran, but stressed that Washington does not need their support.

“The majority of our NATO ‘allies’ have informed the United States that they do not want to participate in our military operation against the terrorist regime of Iran in the Middle East. This is despite the fact that almost every country strongly agrees with our actions and that Iran under no circumstances should be allowed to have nuclear weapons,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social social network.

“However, I am not surprised by their behavior, because I have always considered NATO, where we spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year to protect these very countries, as a one-way street. We protect them, but they do nothing for us, especially in difficult times,” he continued.

“Fortunately, we have defeated the Iranian army. Their navy is destroyed, their air force is destroyed, their air defenses and radars are destroyed and, perhaps most importantly, their leaders at virtually every level have been eliminated and will never again threaten us, our allies in the Middle East or the world!”