President Trump expressed hope that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “more rational” than his father as he reiterated his insistence that a deal with the Islamic Republic is “very close.”
The president also rejected criticism that he has taken the US into another “endless war” and kept the possibility of snatching Iran’s enriched uranium by force a top priority.
“Younger. I think more rational,” Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview that aired Sunday when asked about how the supreme leader compares to his late father, the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Injured. He’s pretty badly injured. So there’s a certain bravery there,” Trump said of Mojtaba, who was caught in the Israeli strike that killed his father on Feb. 28 and hasn’t been seen in public since the war in Iran broke out.
After over five weeks of fighting, the US and Iran agreed to a cease-fire on April 8 and have spent the past two months negotiating a framework for a peace deal.
Trump has been insistent that Iran surrender its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, which is a few technical steps away from weapons-grade enrichment.
Other Trump administration officials have publicly insisted that the US should get Iran’s 20% enriched uranium supplies as well, though it’s not clear if that’s a dealbreaker for the president.
“I think we’re very close. We have a couple of points,” Trump said on the deal being negotiated with Iran. “They don’t even seem like big points. They’ve conceded the fact that they will not have nuclear weapons.”
Late last month, Trump sought edits to the framework being negotiated with Iran for a broader peace deal.
Trump also stressed that the status quo “isn’t sustainable” for Iran as the US blockade ensures Iran is “losing $400-500 million a day.” Trump imposed the blockade on Iran in April in response to the regime wreaking Havoc on the Strait of Hormuz.
“They’re strong. They’re proud. There are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice. And it takes a little while,” the president replied when asked why Iran isn’t caving. “You know, you’re talking about 47 years of getting away with whatever they wanted.”
The war in Iran has divided elements of Trump’s MAGA base due to his railing against “endless wars” in the Middle East during his campaign for the presidency.
But the president rejected that backlash.
“I didn’t promise anything. I don’t like these endless wars. This is not an endless war. We’ve been doing this for three months. Much of it has been under the form [of] a pretty good form of cease-fire,” he said.
“We destroyed the capability of Iran in a matter of days. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. Now I’m going to finish it. But remember, you were in Vietnam [for] 19 years because of stupid people. You were in so many different countries,” he added. “Look at Iraq. You were there for years.”
During his wide-ranging interview on “Meet the Press,” Trump also reiterated that he is willing to use military force to retrieve Iran’s highly enriched uranium, something that is widely seen as a highly complex and risky operation.
However, Trump stressed that he would prefer to send US troops into Iran once a deal with the theocratic regime has been inked.
“Yeah,” Trump said when asked. “But the way you do it is if we make a deal, if we make a deal now we’re friendly, we’ll all go together. It’ll be our equipment. We’ll take it out and destroy it, whether it’s on-site or whether we take it off-site.”
“Now, if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to take them out militarily very harshly,” he added. “And we’ll wait till we do that before we go, in which case we’ll have safety either way.”
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