Justifying an Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities: Examining Trump’s Latest Claims

According to Rokna, Trump stated on Wednesday local time in an interview with NBC News, repeating his contradictory claims: “As you know, they (Iran) are negotiating with us.”

The former U.S. president claimed: “Had we not destroyed Iran’s nuclear capability, we would never have been able to achieve peace in the Middle East.”

Continuing his claims, Trump repeated his threats, saying: “I have heard that Iran wants to restart the program. If that is the case, we will deploy forces to do it again [attack the nuclear facilities]. They tried to return to the facilities but could not gain access. We realized they want to establish a nuclear facility in another part of the country. I said, ‘If you do that, we will do very bad things to you.’”

Trump’s contradictory statements come despite his repeated endorsements of diplomacy and his stated preference for a diplomatic approach toward the Islamic Republic of Iran.

On February 3, 2026 (14 Bahman 1404), the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced that, in response to the requests of friendly governments in the region to reply to the U.S. President’s proposal for negotiations, he had instructed the Foreign Minister to provide the groundwork for fair and equitable negotiations within the framework of national interests.

Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on his X social media account: “Considering the requests of friendly governments in the region to respond to the U.S. President’s proposal for negotiations, I instructed the Foreign Minister to, if a suitable and threat-free environment exists and without unreasonable demands, provide the groundwork for fair and equitable negotiations based on the principles of dignity, wisdom, and expediency within the framework of national interests.”

Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, also stated: “At this stage, we are responsible for conducting various assessments and must evaluate all dimensions of the issue. Regional countries, which are genuinely concerned about the current situation in the region, are making sincere efforts to play a positive role; unlike European countries, which have acted entirely to escalate tensions, the countries of the region are serving as intermediaries for message transmission.”