United States President Donald Trump said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "should be very worried" during a pre-recorded interview with NBC News on Wednesday.
NBC reporter Tom Llamas asked Trump about Iranian anti-regime protesters, who have repeatedly requested US intervention, as the regime continues to conduct a violent crackdown in an attempt to quell the protests.
Trump stated that the US has had the protesters' backs, elaborating that the regime's defense capabilities are "a mess" due to US intervention during the 12-day war in which the US, using B-2 bombers, "wiped out" Iranian nuclear facilities.
"I want peace in the Middle East," Trump said. "If we didn't take out that nuclear, we wouldn't have peace in the Middle East."
Iranian attempts to rebuild nuclear sites
Llamas additionally probed Trump on the possibility of Iranian attempts to rebuild nuclear infrastructure.
The US President stated that he had heard that Iran was taking steps to rebuild and had warned Tehran that if they do try to rearm, he would send US B-2 bombers "right back to do their job again."
He said that Iran was "thinking about starting a new [nuclear] site in a different part of the country," adding that when he found out about this plan, he told Iran: "If you do that, we're going to do very bad things to you."
The segment of the interview was released shortly after the US-Iran nuclear talks, originally scheduled for Friday, were cancelled and then rescheduled due to disputes over the meeting's location, format, and agenda.