Trump says US 'shouldn't have been in Iran'

US President Donald Trump said the United States should not have entered Iraq and suggested it also should not have been involved in Iran, while defending recent US military action against Tehran during an interview broadcast on Fox News.

Reflecting on the US-led invasion of Iraq, Trump criticised the decision to deploy American forces there, says Al Jazeera.

"You look at what happened with Iraq. We did so bad. It was such a foolish thing what we did. We shouldn't have been there in the first place, by the way," Trump said.

He then turned to Iran, arguing that US military action had prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"We shouldn't have been in Iran, but Iran has the capability," he continued. "If we didn't hit them with B-2 bombers, nine months ago, they would have a nuclear weapon right now and will be a whole different story. You probably wouldn't have had Israel, but you probably wouldn't have had a Middle East, and then where do they go from there?"

Trump also said the United States had largely avoided targeting Iran's military establishment, describing it as relatively moderate compared with other elements of the Iranian leadership.

"Their military, we sort of left it alone because we think that their military is somewhat moderate. They have other people that aren't moderate. We've taken them. We've taken different forms of leadership out. We've actually left their military alone," he said.

He added that sparing the military was intended to avoid the long-term instability that can follow the destruction of a country's institutions.

"People would be surprised to hear that because mistakes have been made in wars where you wipe out everybody and then you have a country that's, you know, for 40 years can never rebuild," Trump said.

Trump's remarks came as he discussed possible next steps in US policy towards Iran and reflected on past American military interventions in the Middle East. He did not provide further details on future actions.