Trump says US holding off on hitting targets in Iran which would badly set country back

Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

US President Donald Trump speaks to guests on his way to board Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2026.(Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
US President Donald Trump speaks to guests on his way to board Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 11, 2026.(Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Asked what more he would like to see the US accomplish before ending the war in Iran, US President Donald Trump responds, “More of the same.”

He reiterates that the US is holding off on hitting certain targets, ostensibly referring to those pertaining to energy production.

“We’re leaving certain things, which if we take them out — and we can take them out… within an hour — they literally would never be able to build that country back,” Trump says.

The US was reportedly angered by Israel targeting such sites earlier this week when the IDF bombed a fuel facility near Tehran.

He declines to comment on whether the US would end the war before killing Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, or before the US has recovered Iran’s stockpiles of highly-enriched uranium.

Trump urges global oil companies to resume using the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has been trying to block. The president says the US military has already removed “just about all” of the mines that had allegedly been placed there.

Asked about another report determining that the US was responsible for the deadly strike on Iranian elementary school, Trump responds, “I don’t know about that.”

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