U.S. President Donald Trump is now less confident that the United States could reach a nuclear deal with Iran to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,” President Trump said in a podcast this week.
“Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,” the President added.
Regardless of whether a deal is reached, the U.S. will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb by enriching uranium at the necessary level, he said.
“But it would be nicer to do it without warfare, without people dying, it’s so much nicer to do it. But I don’t think I see the same level of enthusiasm for them to make a deal,” the President noted.
Last month, Iran said that the talks on a nuclear deal “will lead nowhere” if the United States continues to insist that Iran halt uranium enrichment.
“Our position on enrichment is clear and we have repeatedly stated that it is a national achievement from which we will not back down,” Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs, was quoted as saying by Iranian media in May.
Iran insists it has the right to do it for what it says is nuclear energy for peaceful civil purposes. The U.S. insists Iran that drop all enrichment activities.
Ahead of another round of talks, Iran’s Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh said on Wednesday that if negotiations fail and conflict ensues, Iran will strike U.S. bases in the Middle East region.
“Some officials on the other side threaten conflict if negotiations don’t come to fruition. If a conflict is imposed on us … all U.S. bases are within our reach and we will boldly target them in host countries,” Reuters quoted Nasirzadeh as saying at a weekly press briefing.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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