Trump: No immediate plans to strike Iran, US locked and loaded if needed

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he was not planning an immediate military strike against Iran, expressing satisfaction with Washington's position in the ongoing confrontation while emphasizing that American forces remained prepared to act if necessary. In an interview with the Financial Times , Trump described the current situation as favorable to the United States. "It's a brilliant situation," he said. The President again rejected suggestions that Washington and Tehran were engaged in an ongoing war, pointing to previous American military operations against Iran's nuclear infrastructure.

“We're not really in a war, because we hit them with the B2 bombers and wiped out their nuclear potential incapacity. We then hit them again, Epic Fury, etc... But if you think about it, we haven't really had a war with them in a long time, six months, maybe more." "I don't consider that we're in war like Ukraine, wars like World War I, World War II," Trump added. While declining to disclose potential military plans, Trump confirmed that indirect negotiations with Iran were continuing, including discussions about the country's approximately 1,000-pound stockpile of enriched uranium, which he referred to as “nuclear dust".

"Even though it's under hundreds of tons of rock, I would say that I'm not happy that it will be there," Trump said. "So it's one of the things that we do talk to them about. But you know, we're having discussions, and we'll see how that all works out." The President told the Financial Times that American forces were "locked and loaded if we need to go, but there may be no reason for it." He also expressed confidence in the negotiations, stating, "We seem to be getting everything we want".

The remarks followed similar comments Monday, when Trump dismissed speculation that major military operations against Iran could resume following Tuesday's midterm elections. “We had a war with Iran. We won," he told reporters. “I don’t know if you even call it a war because we haven’t been doing any fighting for months." Trump subsequently suggested that an agreement could be reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end Iran's nuclear program, citing falling oil prices as an indication of expectations for a diplomatic settlement.

"Oil Prices are DROPPING LIKE A ROCK, down almost $10 a Barrel, A RECORD, because people feel that there will not be a War with Iran. Iran wants a settlement, as soon as possible. It could happen!" he wrote on Truth Social. During a separate interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News later Monday, Trump stressed that preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons remained a priority. "We cannot let Iran, an evil nation, who has killed many of our people, Soleimani is an example, no longer with us, but killed many of our people, we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon, and we won't," he said.

He also warned that the United States could quickly attack Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility if required. "We bombed out all of their potential nuclear power. Now, we might have to go after Pickaxe [Mountain], but that's not a big deal. We can do it in, literally, we can do that in one hour, okay, as soon as we want, at any time we want." Despite the possibility of further strikes, Trump maintained that Iranian officials "want to make a deal very badly, there's a very good chance we make a deal."