Iran gave advance notice before launching a missile strike on a major US airbase in Qatar last month in response to US air strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program, US President Donald Trump said on July 3.

“You know, they called me to tell me they have to take a shot at us. This was Iran, very respectful. That means they respect us,” he said during a rally in Iowa held as part of the year-long commemorations for the nation's 250th anniversary.

“Because we dropped 14 bombs, they said, ‘We’d like to take 14 shots at you.’ I said, 'Go ahead. I understand.”

Trump said that Iran also specified the exact timing of the attack on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which serves as the forward headquarters of US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Middle East.

“They said where they’d do it. I said, ‘Good.’ We emptied the fort. It was a beautiful military base in Qatar,” he said.

'I said it was fine’

“They said, ‘Sir, one o’clock.’ I said it was fine.”

“Can you imagine? They were nice enough, this is Iran, to call me and tell me that they would like to shoot me 14 times. I said, ‘Go ahead’. And they shot 14 high-grade, very fast missiles. Every single one of them was shot down.”

The Iranian strike, which took place on June 23, marked the peak of nearly two weeks of regional escalation that began on June 13, when Israel carried out air strikes on Iranian nuclear and military sites. Tehran retaliated with missile and drone attacks, and the US retaliated by bombing three Iranian nuclear facilities.

A US-brokered ceasefire took effect the next day, on June 24.

Trump also repeated his claim that the US air strikes had destroyed Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Iran’s nuclear enrichment has been obliterated,” he said. “Remember when CNN said it wasn't obliterated? Now it’s been proven; it’s been obliterated.”

On July 3, the Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that the US strikes had degraded Iran's nuclear program by up to “two years”, asserting that the US military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.