US President Donald Trump has said a peace agreement with Iran remains under negotiation, describing Iranian leaders as “strong” and “proud” but insisting they will ultimately have to reach a deal. Speaking to NBC News on Friday, Trump said progress would take time despite pressure to quickly end the conflict, which entered its fourth month last week.
“They’re strong, they’re proud, there are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” he said.
The United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April, which has since been extended several times. However, tensions have resurfaced in recent days following exchanges of strikes near the Strait of Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told House lawmakers on Wednesday that the military campaign, which the Trump administration has named “Operation Epic Fury”, had concluded.
He said strikes carried out earlier in the week were defensive and came in response to Iranian attacks on vessels near the strategic waterway. “In order to protect our own forces, we don’t just strike the drones, we strike the people who launch those drones,” Rubio told lawmakers during a Senate hearing. “These are completely defensive in nature, but they are happening in response to an Iranian action. If they don’t shoot at those ships, we don’t shoot, but we have to respond.”
The conflict led Iran several months ago to close the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes for oil exports. The closure has contributed to rising global oil prices and higher fuel costs in the United States, increasing pressure on the Trump administration to ease economic strains on consumers.
During his NBC interview, Trump rejected criticism that his administration had been too slow to secure an agreement with Tehran. “It takes years to do these things,” he said. “These people have been fighting for 47 years. They’ve been killing Americans.”
Referring to US casualties over the years, he added: “They’ve been taking off their legs and their arms and their faces have been hurt so badly and so horribly.”
Trump also compared the current conflict with the Vietnam War.
“I’m moving very fast. I’m into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I’m into my third month, and all they do is say, ‘Whoa, when are you going to win?’ If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve gotten so used to it.”
The President said US military operations had significantly reduced Iran’s capabilities but acknowledged that Tehran retained some missile and drone capacity. “Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, most of the launching pads have been knocked out, and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out,” he said. “But they still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones.”
He added: “I would say percentagewise, maybe 21%-22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked.”
Iran demonstrated it still possesses missile and drone capabilities earlier this week by launching attacks across the Persian Gulf, including a strike that hit Kuwait International Airport.
Trump and other administration officials have repeatedly argued that the conflict, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran, was necessary to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon.
In a separate interview on Wednesday with the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast, Trump said it was “unlikely” that a US blockade imposed after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz would remain in place by Labor Day. He also suggested that negotiations might not ultimately succeed. “Do we sign a deal or we do it the other way?” Trump said. “And the other way is not nice.”