Florida: US President Donald Trump on Saturday, during a Halloween event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, made a high-stakes statement on the ongoing military campaign against Iran's strategic and nuclear infrastructure.
Targeting Tehran's nuclear ambitions and air defence networks, Trump asserted that American operations have already crippled the core of Iran's nuclear programme and military assets, leaving only a couple of targets, including key underground facilities like ‘Pickaxe Mountain’, which the US military could eliminate at short notice.
"We've knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in ten minutes," Trump said.
According to the President, the US is not in an urgent rush to resume immediate strikes, as preceding air operations have successfully degraded Iran's navy, air force, anti-aircraft networks and defence manufacturing infrastructure.
"We're not in that much of a hurry from the standpoint that we've knocked out their navy, we've knocked out their air force, we've knocked out their anti-aircraft, we've knocked out almost every piece of military equipment they have, we've knocked out a lot of their manufacturing capability. Uh, we've knocked out the nuclear. We've knocked out their nuclear," Trump said.
He specifically referred to one or two high-priority nuclear infrastructure targets — notably hardened underground installations like Pickaxe Mountain, stating American capabilities allow for their destruction within a rapid 10-minute window if authorised.
Despite the tough rhetoric, Trump indicated that Tehran has signalled a desire to negotiate a deal. However, he expressed strong scepticism about Iran's reliability, reiterating that "Iran will never have a nuclear weapon" while keeping military action on the table as administration officials deliberate next steps.
"They wanna make a deal, and we will see if they make a deal," he said, adding, "But they are not very reliable. They make a deal, and then they back out."
When asked whether he would order renewed military strikes against Iran, Trump described the question as "stupid" and said, "Let's say I did, would I tell you? I can't tell you."
His remarks come amid continued diplomatic engagement between Washington and Tehran, even as the US administration weighs its military options.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that diplomatic conversations involving Iran had continued without interruption, but declined to provide a timeframe or assess the progress of the negotiations.