US President Donald Trump has renewed his call for talks with Iran to reach a deal preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, emphasizing that he prefers negotiations over bombing the country.
Trump told The New York Post on Saturday: “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. . . . They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”
On February 4, Trump signed a directive to intensify sanctions enforcement on Iran, at the same time insisting that he would prefer negotiations rather than confrontation and offered to meet his Iranian counterpart.
Trump told the Post, “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.” Earlier he had said that any reports the United States and Israel would work together on a devastating military attack on Iran were overblown.
"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens,” ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED," Trump said.
In his remarks to the Post, Trump refused to reveal his negotiating tactic with Tehran. “I could tell what I have to tell them, and I hope they decide that they’re not going to do what they’re currently thinking of doing. And I think they’ll really be happy.”
Following Trump’s move to tighten sanctions and his expressed willingness to negotiate, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday ruled out any talks with the United States.
Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran during his first term, imposing tough economic sanctions that have triggered a prolonged financial crisis in the country.
Iran has also lost influence in the Middle East as a result of Israeli attacks on its proxy forces and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
