PRESIDENT Donald Trump will not be seeking a reprisal attack against Iran following the Wednesday attack by the oil-rich country against US bases in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of its top general, Qassem Soleimani.

Rather, he has sent a message to Iran boasting that the United States’ missiles are “big, powerful, lethal and fast,” though there is no desire to use them.

“Our missiles are big and powerful and accurate and lethal and the fact that we have these doesn’t mean we want to use them. We do not want to use them.”  Trump said this on Wednesday morning while addressing the American people for the first time since the missile attack launched at two US bases in Iraq.

Prior to his public address, the embattled president had tweeted that “all is well” in response to the news of Iran’s attack.

The US president reiterated that no casualty was recorded both on the American and Iraqi sides, and called for peace.

Trump described  Iran as the leading sponsor of terrorism and stressed that their pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the peace of the world.

He, however, noted in an unequivocal term that as long as he is the president of the United States, “Iran will never be allowed to have  nuclear weapons.”

He, therefore, asked Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions and end support for terrorists, as well as calling on Europe and China to “break away from the remnants of the Iran nuclear deal”, except a new deal is negotiated.

President Trump also announced that the U.S. would be imposing additional “punishing” economic sanctions on Iran until it changes its behaviour, though he was silent on details of the sanctions.

While defending the killing of  Soleimani, Trump described the late general as a “ruthless terrorist”, saying that the United States eliminated a top world terrorist.

The president who is currently facing impeachment also called on NATO to become more involved in the middle east process and stressed that America is self-sufficient, being the world’s top producer of oil and natural gas.