The US president has blamed the administration of his predecessor Barack Obama for allowing Iran to develop its nuclear programme – a main justification he used for launching the war.

“They were on the road to getting one [a nuclear weapon] legitimately through a deal signed foolishly by our country,” said Donald Trump.

“Finally, we’re ensuring the regime cannot fund or direct armies outside of their borders. We thought we had a deal, and then they backed out. Then they came back, we thought we had a deal, and they backed out. I said, ‘You can’t deal with these people’. We gotta do it the right way.”