Washington: US President Donald Trump said Iran wants an agreement with Washington “so badly” and has essentially accepted that it cannot possess a nuclear weapon, but warned that American forces could resume attacks if negotiations fail.
Trump made the remarks during a virtual campaign rally for Republican Congressman Andy Ogles and in a separate interview with Fox News.
“They will never have a nuclear weapon, and they understand it,” Trump told voters in Tennessee. “We’ve taken them, we’ve hit them very hard and they wanna make a deal so badly.”
In the Fox interview, Trump said the United States and Iran had held “some very good talks”. He rejected Iranian statements suggesting that nuclear matters were not being discussed.
“For some reason, we can be in the midst of a beautiful discussion, and they’ll come out and say, we’re not talking or we didn’t discuss nuclear,” he said. “Well, that’s all we discussed because they’ll never have a nuclear weapon, they understand that.”
Trump said Iran had essentially agreed to the US demand but had not yet formalised its commitment.
“I just want very simply — they cannot have a nuclear weapon, very simple,” he said. “And they’ve agreed to that essentially, we have to get them to make it formal, but they’ve agreed to it.”
The president said he would prefer an agreement to further military action. But he threatened extensive strikes against Iran’s bridges, power stations and other infrastructure if Tehran rejected a deal.
“If they don’t make a deal, then I go back and I finish the job,” Trump said.
He also warned that the United States could attack Pickax Mountain, where Iran was reportedly undertaking construction and fortification work.
“We took out their nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickax if we don’t make a deal,” Trump said. “If we don’t make a deal, we’ll take it out very easily.”
Trump said the US military controlled access through the Strait of Hormuz and was allowing passage only to selected ships. He said Washington had eased its blockade after reaching the outlines of an agreement but restored it after Iran broke the arrangement.
“The only ones that get through are the ones that we want to get through,” he said. “We have a blockade that’s so powerful that nobody can get through.”
Iran and six world powers concluded a nuclear agreement in 2015 that restricted Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump withdrew the United States from that agreement in 2018 during his first presidential term.
