US President Donald Trump arrived at The Hague on Wednesday for a NATO summit and he revelled in what he presented as his ability to reach a ceasefire in the recent conflict between Iran and Israel.

“They’re not going to be fighting each other. They’ve had it. They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. You know, they fight like hell. You can’t stop them. Let them fight for about two, three minutes. Then it’s easier to stop them.”

On June 13, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iranian military, government, and suspected nuclear sites.

Tehran retaliated by launching ballistic missiles, some of which struck Israeli population centres. Trump joined the fight on Israel’s side, targeting Iranian nuclear sites with huge bunker-busting bombs. He claimed that that decision put an end to the fighting.

“This ended that war. If we didn’t take that out, they would have been, they’d be fighting right now.”

Both Iran and Israel declared victory after the ceasefire was announced.

Israel claimed to have achieved its goals of destroying Iran’s nuclear sites and missiles. Iran claimed to have forced the war to end by penetrating Israeli defenses.

But the extent of the damage in Iran is uncertain.

The US dropped 30,000 pound ‘bunker-buster’ bombs on the deeply buried Fordow uranium enrichment facility.

An initial assessment by the US Defense Intelligence Agency said Iran’s path to building a nuclear weapon may have been set back only by months.

Trump shrugged off that report, saying the findings were “inconclusive,” and that the targeted sites were destroyed.

“We hear it was obliteration. It was a virtual obliteration.”

Rafael Grossi, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said his top priority was ensuring international inspectors could return to Iran’s nuclear sites.

Grossi said whatever the damage, Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon remained,

“What is clear is that, in any case the technological knowledge is there, and the industrial capacity is there that no one can deny.”

“The last thing they (Iran) want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover.”

Trump sounded optimistic that Iran would not continue to enrich uranium or pursue nuclear weapons.

“We’ll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran.”