ISTANBUL

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Iran and Israel are both “exhausted” after fighting “hard” and “violently,” but warned the conflict could resume “someday.

“We think it’s over. I don’t think they’re going to be going back at each other,” Trump told reporters at the NATO summit in The Hague, adding that both sides were “satisfied to go home.”

However, Trump acknowledged uncertainty about lasting peace: “Can it start again? I guess someday it can. It could maybe start soon.”

He claimed the war actually ended when US forces struck Iranian nuclear sites. “I think the war ended actually, when we hit the various nuclear sites with the planes,” he said.

Iran’s nuclear program ‘blown up to kingdom come’

Trump said US strikes hit Iranian nuclear facilities so “hard” and “fast” that Iran could not relocate nuclear materials, claiming the program was “blown up to kingdom come.”

He referenced an Israeli Atomic Energy Commission report stating American strikes “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons for many years to come.”

Trump said the operation not only harmed Iran’s nuclear program, but also “reasserted the credibility of American deterrence.”

He also announced that talks with Iran are set for next week, with a potential deal signing. However, he added: “I don’t think it’s that necessary.”

The US president said that Iran was “going back to their world” after the war and said: “I don’t care if I have an agreement or not.”