US President Donald Trump has said he is weighing fresh strikes on Iran without nuclear weapons or ground troops, while insisting negotiations with Tehran were under way.
Asked on Newsmax’s “Finnerty” on Thursday about reports he is considering the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, the “mother of all bombs”, possibly after the 3 November midterms, Trump said it is “not nuclear at all”. He called it “just an extremely large bomb”.
CNN reported that the US military has drawn up plans to use the roughly 21,600-pound MOAB against Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if Trump orders renewed combat.
Asked if that would involve American ground troops, he said: “No, I don’t see that.” He said that withdrawing now risks having to “do it again” within a year, reiterating "Iran must never get a nuclear weapon".
Trump predicted the war “will be over very soon”, adding that “they are negotiating with us”. He said the end would come “one way or the other”.
“They’ve asked us to please stop. And we do, because we’re negotiating with them,” he said.