US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Iran’s surviving stockpiles of enriched uranium did not concern him at all since they are buried underground and inaccessible, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that during the current war, Israel has “smashed” Tehran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons.

Both remarks appeared to potentially set the stage for the conclusion of the war, even as the US has been amassing troops for a potential ground operation in Iran.

In a phone interview with CBS, Trump said he “doesn’t even think about” Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, whose recovery experts say is critical to ensuring that Tehran can’t rush to a nuclear weapon.

“I don’t even think about it. I just know that it’s so deeply buried it’s going to be very hard for anybody” to reach it, Trump said, referencing last year’s US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities where the stockpiles are believed to be held.

“It’s down there deep… Even without a war, they haven’t been able to do it. So… it’s pretty safe. But, we’ll make a determination,” he added.

Asked when the war could wind down completely, Trump was again non-committal.

“It won’t be long,” he said.

“I would say we are two weeks ahead of schedule,” Trump claimed, even though the White House previously said the war would last four to six weeks, and the war is now in its fifth week.

Trump added that it would take Iran “10 years to rebuild” after the war.

Meanwhile, in a video statement, Netanyahu lauded the IDF’s accomplishments in the war against Iran last June and in the current campaign, including “hitting hard and distancing two........

© The Times of Israel