File image.
United States President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News that Iran has lost most of its missile and drone production capacity, and retains only 21 to 22 percent of its missile stockpile.
“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,” Trump said in the interview, excerpts of which were released on June 5.
“They still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones,” he continued.
“I would say percentage-wise, maybe 21-22% of their missiles, it’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked,” he added.
Asked why Iran had not yet agreed to a deal to permanently end the war — started by the U.S. and Israel on February 28 — despite what he described as desperation on their part, Trump said: “They’re proud, and 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.”
And when pressed on why he failed to negotiate a better deal after withdrawing from the original Iran nuclear agreement in his first term, he said: “It takes years to do these things. These people have been fighting for 47 years.”
The estimates provided by Trump are likely very optimistic. A recent report by The New York Times revealed that U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the Islamic Republic likely still has access to around 70 percent of its pre-war ballistic missile stockpiles, and around 60 percent of its missile launchers.
Several recent clashes in the Persian Gulf also indicate that Iran is still in possession of the majority of its missile stockpiles.
In fact, over the night of June 5 and 6, seven ballistic missiles were launched from the Islamic Republic towards Kuwait and Bahrain, according to the U.S. Central Command. This was one of the largest Iranian attacks since the ceasefire with Washington entered into effect on April 7.
U.S. and Israeli strikes clearly failed to neutralize Iran’s missile arsenal, and there have been reports amid the ceasefire of work about the Islamic Republic to rearm.
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the narrative gets rewritten again by implanted script writers who believe in unicorns. funny