Trump on September 11 Anniversary: Iran Will Never Have a Nuclear Weapon and We Will Never Forget
President uses the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks to declare Iran the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism and reaffirm America's commitment to preventing it from acquiring nuclear weapons
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - President Donald Trump used the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on Friday to deliver a direct warning about Iran, declaring that the Islamic Republic is the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism and that it will never acquire a nuclear weapon, while framing the current US-Iran conflict as a new test of American resolve that the country has already proven it can pass.
"Our forces are currently working to ensure that Iran, the world's largest sponsor of terrorism, will never acquire a nuclear weapon," Trump said. "The Islamic Republic of Iran is the world's largest sponsor of terrorism and this country will never acquire a nuclear weapon."
Trump drew a direct line between the September 11 attacks and the current conflict with Iran, describing today as a new test following the test of September 11 and saying America has proven its success in it. "We cannot forget the moment of evil on September 11, and today we are discovering the identity of our country and we must be strong and smart," he said.
The president closed with a personal pledge of remembrance and resolve. "I emphasize that we will never forget what happened on September 11, and today we are fighting in loyalty to that oath," Trump said.
Trump's September 11 anniversary statement places the US-Iran conflict explicitly within the broader American narrative of the post-September 11 era, framing the six-month war with Iran as the continuation and culmination of the same national commitment to confronting state sponsors of terrorism that the September 11 attacks first forged. By describing Iran as the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism on the anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, Trump draws the sharpest possible connection between the two defining national security events of his generation.
The nuclear warning delivered on September 11, 2026, carries particular weight given the diplomatic and military context of the day. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared Friday that the US is targeting 85 percent of Iran's tankers and that $140 billion in oil has moved safely through the Strait of Hormuz in two weeks of consecutive operations. Iran's Foreign Ministry simultaneously announced a Monday coastal states meeting in Oman to discuss safe shipping routes, warning that security cannot be guaranteed while the blockade continues. And Israel's Defense Minister Katz has warned of an unprecedented Israeli military response if Iran attacks during the upcoming Jewish holiday period.
The White House has published a formal document cataloguing 74 separate occasions on which Trump has stated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, spanning more than two years of public statements. Friday's September 11 declaration, delivered on the anniversary of the attacks that defined America's generation-long confrontation with terrorism, is the most historically weighted of those statements yet.