United States President Donald Trump has admitted that the US did not anticipate Iran would retaliate after the joint strikes by the US and Israel. Trump said the US was "shocked" after Iran launched attacks on Gulf countries.
"They weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East. Those missiles were sent to go after them. They hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait," Trump told reporters.
"Nobody expected that. We were shocked. You know, they fought back," he added.
However, Trump justified the US actions, saying that if the US had not been involved, Iran would have posed a serious threat to Gulf states. "If we weren't around... they have tremendous power, thousands of missiles, most of which we have terminated," he said.
The remarks come as the war, which began on February 28 after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, has now entered its third week.
The US-Israel strikes reportedly led to the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several military and key government leaders.
In retaliation, Iran targeted US bases in Gulf countries including Oman, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Saudi Arabia, further escalating the conflict across the wider West Asia region.
Earlier, Iran had warned that it would strike back if attacked.
The US and Israel had also carried out strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June last year, during a conflict that lasted nearly two weeks.
The latest strikes were reportedly launched after talks over Iran's nuclear programme failed to yield any positive outcome. The US has maintained that Iran must not develop nuclear weapons and should not be allowed to enrich uranium for military purposes.
Iran, however, has consistently stated that it does not intend to develop nuclear weapons and is pursuing its nuclear programme solely for energy and civilian use.
