In his State of the Union address to Congress, US President Donald Trump briefly outlined the arguments for a possible attack on Iran, assuring that he would not allow the "largest sponsor" of terrorism in the world to acquire nuclear weapons, Reuters reports.
Trump called Tehran's support for militant groups, the killings of anti-government protesters in January and the country's missile and nuclear programs threats to the region and the United States.
Here are some questions and answers about his statements:
What exactly did Trump say about Iran's weapons programs?
Trump said that Iran has developed missiles that can threaten Europe and US bases abroad and is "working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America." He pointed out that the US air strikes he ordered last June, known as Operation "Midnight Hammer", have "wiped out" Iran's nuclear weapons program, but Tehran is "starting over" and "at this point is once again pursuing its sinister ambitions." He did not provide details to support his claims. What have the U.S. and Iran publicly said about the missiles? The U.S. military intelligence agency has said Iran has space-based launch vehicles that could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile by 2035 if it chooses to develop that capability. Iranian state media has said Tehran is developing a missile capable of reaching the United States. Missile expert Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in California noted that the U.S. Military Intelligence Agency's assessment appears to be "very conservative", given that since 2013, Iran has been jointly developing with North Korea an engine that Pyongyang uses for multiple versions of its intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States.
What is known about the status of Iran's nuclear program?
All three plants where Iran is known to have produced enriched uranium, which can be used as fuel for power plants and nuclear bombs depending on its purity, were hit in U.S. strikes on Iran last June.
Trump repeatedly claimed after the strikes that Iran's nuclear facilities had been destroyed, but International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi warned in June that Iran could resume enriching uranium on a more limited scale within the framework of months.
The IAEA says it has inspected all 13 declared nuclear facilities in Iran that were not bombed, but it has failed to verify any of the three key sites that were hit in June: Natanz, Fordow or Isfahan.
How close is Iran to a nuclear bomb?
One of the reasons the United States and Israel cited for the June bombings was that Iran had come too close to being able to produce a nuclear weapon.
The IAEA and the U.S. intelligence community have separately assessed that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
Tehran denies ever trying to build nuclear weapons, but as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it says it has the right to enrich uranium for civilian use. goals.
Western powers say there is no credible justification for Iran's enrichment of uranium to the levels it has produced, and the IAEA has said it is a serious cause for concern. No other country has done so without ultimately creating nuclear weapons.
In its annual Global Threat Assessment for 2025, the US intelligence community said it continued to believe that "Iran is not developing nuclear weapons and that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003, although he may have been pressured to do so".
Trump subsequently rejected the assessment by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, saying that she and the US intelligence community were wrong and that Iran was "very close" to possessing a nuclear weapon. However, he did not provide evidence to support his claim.
What did Trump say about the killings of protesters?
In his speech, Trump repeated the claim that Iran has killed at least 32,000 protesters in the past few months - figures that have not been officially confirmed.
The US-based HRANA organization, which monitors the human rights situation in Iran, said in a report this week that it had registered 7,007 confirmed deaths, with 11,744 under investigation.
Last week, hours after Trump first mentioned 32,000 as the death toll, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran had already published a "comprehensive list" of all 3,117 killed in the unrest.
An Iranian official said last month that authorities had confirmed at least 5,000 deaths, including about 500 security personnel.