US President Donald Trump declared this Saturday that Washington is close to a “very good deal” with Iran and that this country would have agreed to a key point of the negotiations: not to have nuclear weapons.
Interviewed on Lara Trump’s program – wife of his son Eric – for Fox News, the president said he prefers to reach a consensus, but that he is also willing to resume military action if necessary.
“But we are close to a very good deal and if we can’t do it right, we will simply put the War Department into action, as we call it, and it has been very successful, you saw what happened in Venezuela and it was a one-day victory,” he pointed out.
He then confirmed that for him a deal is essential, since this would immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and that Tehran agreed not to develop a nuclear weapon nor acquire one by other means, describing this as an important change in the negotiations.
“I prefer to reach a deal, because we can open the strait immediately after signing. The only guarantee I need is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They agreed to that and it was very interesting. They said they originally would not develop a nuclear weapon”, the president said.
He added: “I asked them: ‘What if they buy a nuclear weapon?’. So now they say they will neither develop nor buy a military weapon in any way. That is a big difference. We are getting what we want little by little, with very tough negotiators, and it takes a long time, but I am not in a hurry.”
Likewise, he described the Tehran regime as a “very tough” negotiator and that, in this regard, “the United States has been on the defensive against Iran. They have been aggressive to some extent and we have been defensive.”
“They are clever, but, in the end, we have all the cards in hand, because we have defeated them militarily”, he assured, pointing out that “we finished their Army, we finished their Navy, their Air Force and their air defense. We finished everything.”
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During the interview, the White House occupant also took time to reflect on the conflict in Iraq and said that US forces should not have been in Baghdad or Iran.
“Look at what happened in Iraq. We did terribly. It was a real mistake. By the way, we should not have been there in the first place,” Trump said.
“We should not have been in Iran, but Iran has the capability,” he continued. “If we had not attacked them with B-2 bombers nine months ago, they would now have a nuclear weapon and the situation would be completely different. Israel probably would not exist, but probably the Middle East would not exist, and what would have happened next?”, he detailed.
Likewise, he argued that his Administration has deliberately spared the Iranian military.
“We have, in a way, left their armed forces alone because we believe they are moderate. They have other people who are not moderate. We have sidelined them. We have eliminated different forms of leadership. Actually, we have left their armed forces alone,” he pointed out.
He then added that “people would be surprised to hear that because mistakes have been made in wars where everyone is annihilated and then you have a country that, you know, for 40 years can never rebuild.”
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