Trump says Iran conflict, which has killed 18 US service members and injured hundreds more, is ‘small potatoes’特朗普称伊朗冲突是“小事一桩”，这场冲突已造成18名美国军人死亡，数百人受伤。
President Donald Trump on Friday labeled the Iran war “small potatoes,” the latest attempt to minimize a six-month conflict that caused a spike in gas prices and led to the deaths of 18 American service-members.
Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Friday labeled the Iran war “small potatoes,” the latest attempt to minimize a six-month conflict that caused a spike in gas prices and led to the deaths of 18 American service-members.
“A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it’s small potatoes for us. It’s not a big thing,” he said in the Oval Office.
A day earlier, Vice President JD Vance said the conflict shouldn’t be termed a “war” since major combat operations ended months ago.
Trump similarly cast the conflict as periodic and low-grade, despite routine rounds of back-and-forth strikes.
“I would say that it’s intermittent. You know, we do intermittent strikes,” Trump said, adding: “There’s a lot of truth that we’re not fighting right now. There’s no fighting.”
This week the US said it had targeted nearly 60 military targets around the Strait of Hormuz — including air defense sites, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites — while simultaneously escorting ships through the waterway.
Trump himself also raised the prospect of a new operation soon to take out a suspected Iranian nuclear site south of Tehran .
“We may hit Pickaxe very soon,” he said, referring to the underground facility where Iran is believed to have moved some of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
But he still insisted the conflict was not a war.
“It’s a military conflict, but it’s very intermittent. I could see somebody not calling it a war,” he said.
He continued: “I don’t think it matters what you call it. What matters is the fact that we have had tremendous success.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images
周五，唐纳德·特朗普总统将伊朗战争称为“小事一桩”，这是他最新一次试图淡化这场持续六个月的冲突。这场冲突导致汽油价格飙升，并造成 18 名美国军人丧生。
“很多人不称之为战争。我称之为军事冲突，因为对我们来说，这只是小事一桩。这不是什么大事，”他在椭圆形办公室说道。
前一天，副总统 JD Vance 表示，这场冲突不应该被称为“战争”，因为主要的战斗行动几个月前就结束了。
尽管双方之间经常发生例行的来回打击，但特朗普同样将这场冲突描述为周期性的、低级别的冲突。
“我会说这是间歇性的。你知道，我们偶尔会进行打击行动，”特朗普说，并补充道：“现在我们没有交战，这确实是事实。没有交战。”
本周，美国表示，它袭击了霍尔木兹海峡周围的近 60 个军事目标，包括防空设施、雷达系统、海上资产、布雷能力和通信设施，同时还护送船只通过该水道。
特朗普本人也提出了很快将展开新行动，摧毁德黑兰南部疑似伊朗核设施的可能性。
“我们可能很快就会发现‘镐头’，”他说道，指的是伊朗据信已将其部分高浓缩铀库存转移到的地下设施。
但他仍然坚持认为这场冲突不是战争。
“这是一场军事冲突，但持续时间很短。我能理解有人不称之为战争，”他说。
他接着说：“我觉得叫什么并不重要。重要的是我们取得了巨大的成功。”
这是一则正在更新的新闻。