“I don’t know,” Trump told the “Pod Force One” podcast on Monday when asked if he thought he could get Iran to agree to shut down its nuclear program. “I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more — less confident about it.”
Trump has been seeking a new nuclear deal to place limits on Iran’s disputed uranium enrichment activities and has threatened the Islamic Republic with bombing if no agreement is reached.
He told reporters at the White House on Monday that he had discussed Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and said talks with Iranians were “tough.”
In the podcast interview, Trump said the Iranians seem to be using delaying tactics.
“I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,” he said.
Trump repeated that Washington would not allow Tehran to develop nuclear bombs – by enriching uranium to high levels of fissile purity – whether or not a deal is reached.
“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.”
Iran has long said it has no plans to develop nuclear weapon and is only interested in atomic power generation and other peaceful projects.
