Trump issues warning to Iran on nuclear weapons in State of the Union address
President Donald Trump seemed to lay out his case for potential strikes on Iran directly to the American people during the State of the Union Address on Tuesday night -- saying that Iran has already developed missiles that threaten Europe and could soon reach American soil.
Trump, though, said he preferred to solve the matter through diplomacy but issued a stark warning to the country's leaders as negotiations between the U.S. and Iran are set to continue this week.
In his address, Trump said that while the U.S. "obliterated" Iran's nuclear weapons program in strikes on the nation in June during Operation Midnight Hammer, he warned that they want to start the nuclear program again.
"They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America," Trump said. "After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program and in particular nuclear weapons. Yet they continue, they're starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start all over again," Trump said.
The White House previously said it would accept nothing short of a full stop for Tehran's nuclear program. Questions remain about the current state of that program. Senior Israeli officials told ABC News in July that some enriched uranium may have survived the powerful U.S. strikes.
The White House's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News that Tehran was "probably a week away from having industrial-grade, bomb-making material, and that's really dangerous."
Trump's remarks come as America continues to threaten a sustained military action against Iran if negotiations over nuclear weapons don't end how he wants them to.
"We are in negotiations with them," Trump said in his speech. "They want to make a deal, but we haven't heard those secret words, 'We will never have a nuclear weapon.'"
Trump added, "My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon, can't let that happen. And no nation should ever doubt America's resolve," Trump added.
Talks between the U.S. and Iran are set to resume on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X Tuesday. The foreign minister also seemed to agree with the president, saying that Iran will not "ever develop a nuclear weapon."
"Our fundamental convictions are crystal clear: Iran will under no circumstances ever develop a nuclear weapon; neither will we Iranians ever forgo our right to harness the dividends of peaceful nuclear technology for our people," Araghchi added in a later post.
While the president said earlier this month that regime change is "the best thing that could happen" for the nation, the president has not used that as a primary argument for military action in Iran. But that didn't stop him from blasting the Iranian regime that he said spreads "terrorism and death and hate."
"The regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate. They've killed and maimed thousands of American service members and hundreds of thousands and even millions of people with what's called roadside bombs."
The president also again claimed that the Iranian government had killed 32,000 protesters. He also touted his interference earlier this month to prevent Iran from killing protestors.
"They shot them and hung them. We stopped them from hanging, a lot of them, with the threat of serious violence. But this is some terrible people," Trump said.
ABC News' Nicholas Kerr, Emily Chang and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
