Israel's strikes on Iranian nuclear targets were "expected," as President Donald Trump in April said Iran had a limited time to negotiate the end of its nuclear program, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said on Newsmax Friday.
"Remember, on April 12, President Trump said the Iranian regime had 60 days to negotiate the end of their nuclear program," the Oklahoma Republican told Newsmax's "National Report." "Yesterday was 60. My point is that President Trump doesn't bluff. Neither do the Israelis."
Further, Mullin said that "no one's better than the Israelis" about knowing the intimate details of the Iranian nuclear program and how close they were to having the uranium enrichment levels needed to build a nuclear bomb.
Mullin also said he spoke with Trump Friday morning, "and he made it very clear that we didn't participate in this," even though the United States knew Israel was moving forward.
But Trump did make it clear that the Iranian regime is "severely crippled" and if it tries to retaliate on U.S. assets, interests, or troops in the region, "we will respond with full force," the senator said.
He also dismissed the idea of a "forever war."
"President Trump will have a clear idea of what victory looks like before we start," he said. "What that would be is eliminating their ability to have nuclear weapons … they do not want to fight with us."
Iran, meanwhile, does not have the capability for a full response on Israel, because "they can talk tough, but they don't have the ability to back it up," Mullin said.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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