President Trump said Wednesday he doesn’t think it’s necessary to come to a deal with Iran to abandon or contain its nuclear program, but said U.S. and Iranian officials will meet next week over a possible agreement.
Speaking following the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump said he assessed Iran’s nuclear capabilities to be destroyed, despite U.S. intelligence reports suggesting Tehran’s uranium enrichment program was set back months, not years.
“The way I look at it, they fought the war is done. I could get a statement that they’re not going to go nuclear. We’re probably going to ask for that. But they’re not going to be doing it,” Trump said.
“We’re going to talk to them next week with Iran, we may sign an agreement. To me, I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Trump took on a combative tone throughout the press conference, pushing back against questions about the preliminary assessment that U.S. strikes on three of Iran’s primary nuclear facilities may not have “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities, as Trump has claimed.
“I said Iran will not have nuclear. Well, we blew it up, to kingdom come. I don’t feel very strongly about it. If we got a document it wouldn’t be bad,” Trump said of a nuclear deal.
An assessment by Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission said the U.S. strikes, coupled with Israel’s military operations, have “set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years.”
Iran views its right to enrichment of uranium, the fuel needed for a nuclear weapon, as a pillar of their sovereignty and security.
Iran maintains its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes, but the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog has raised alarm over the proliferation of enriched uranium moving Iran close to weapons-grade material, and Tehran hiding parts of its nuclear program from international inspectors.
Trump withdrew the U.S. from an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran during his first term. Early in his second term, Trump gave Iran a 60-day window to reach a new agreement, but its leaders rejected a U.S. proposal after five rounds of talks. A planned sixth round was canceled after Israel began strikes on Iran earlier this month.