President Trump said Iranian leaders cleared their plan with the U.S. to fire retaliatory strikes against an American airbase in Qatar, and even requested a specific time to attack.
“They said, ’We’re going to shoot them. Is one o’clock OK?’ I said it’s fine. And everybody was emptied off the base so they couldn’t get hurt, except for the gunners,” Mr. Trump said at a press conference in the Netherlands, where he is attending a NATO summit.
Monday’s Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military installation in the region, was repelled by missile defense batteries, and there were no casualties, the Pentagon said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps confirmed the assault minutes after witnesses reported seeing and hearing explosions in the skies over Qatar. The attack came in response to Saturday’s U.S. military strikes In Iran, which significantly damaged three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.
Mr. Trump said all 14 missiles fired by Iran were shot down by U.S. defense equipment, although initial reports determined one of the missiles escaped interception.
“All 14, as you know, were shot down by our equipment,” he said. “Amazing stuff. Amazing that they can do it. It’s like shooting a bullet with a bullet.”
On Monday, Mr. Trump said Iran launched 14 missiles, but only 13 were struck down. One was “set free” because it was heading in a “nonthreatening direction,” he said.
Mr. Trump called the strikes “a very weak response” and said he hopes Iran has “gotten it all out of their ’system.’”
The president on Monday announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, which has so far stopped the two nations from trading drone and missile attacks.
At NATO, Mr. Trump said he’s not interested in restarting talks with Iran, although he said the two sides will meet again next week. The U.S. and Iran had six rounds of negotiations to find a deal to end Iran’s nuclear program before Israel launched strikes on Iran and the conflict in the Middle East started to grow.
“The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done,” he said.
He said he could ask for a statement from Iran that “they’re not going to go nuclear,” but “they’re not going to be doing [nuclear] anyway.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.