Following Geneva talks that failed to produce firm assurances against nuclear weapons development, Donald Trump said he is ’not happy’ with the way Iran is negotiating and has not decided on possible military action.
US President Donald Trump on Friday voiced dissatisfaction with Iran’s stance in recent nuclear negotiations, while saying he had not yet made a final call on possible military action.
Speaking to reporters a day after American and Iranian officials met in Geneva, Trump said Tehran was failing to meet US expectations. He stressed that Washington’s core demand remains unchanged: Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons.
“We haven’t made a final decision,” he told reporters when asked about the use of force.
“We’re not exactly happy with the way they negotiated. They cannot have nuclear weapons, and we’re not thrilled with the way they’re negotiating,” Trump said.
“We want no nuclear weapons by Iran and they’re not saying those golden words.”
Iran has said repeatedly that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons and US intelligence has found no evidence that it has made a decision to do so.
But the United States and Israel, which carried out a major bombing campaign in Iran in June, are sceptical of the statements by Iran, which backs Palestinian militants Hamas.
Asked if an attack would trigger all-out war in the Middle East, Trump said, “I guess you could always say there’s always a risk.
“You know when there’s war, there’s a risk in anything, both good and bad.”
Trump was circumspect on whether a US attack would bring down the Islamic republic, a sworn enemy of the United States and Israel.
Authorities last month killed thousands of people as they crushed mass protests in the biggest threat to the ruling clerics since the 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western shah.
“Nobody knows. There might be and there might not be,” Trump said of regime change.
Trump in his first term ripped up a nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama in which Iran agreed to strict limits on uranium enrichment.
Oman, which has been acting as a mediator between the United States and Iran, sent its foreign minister to Washington on Friday for discussions on the issue with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, according to a source familiar with the matter.
A source briefed on the internal White House deliberations told Reuters that Trump, who launched a bombing raid against Iranian nuclear sites last June, is “very clear-eyed on all the options before him.”
There is a recognition internally that taking on Iran would be more difficult than the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and there was also internal pessimism as to whether negotiations will bear fruit, Reuters cited a source as saying.
“Nobody is super optimistic about the negotiations,” the source said.
With inputs from agencies
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