Donald Trump told reporters this afternoon that “a deal could still happen” and that he thinks “Iran was a few weeks away from having a nuclear weapon”.
The president added that he will attend a meeting in an hour on the evacuation of US citizens fromIsrael, Reuters reports.
“They should have made the deal, I had a great deal for them… in the end they decided not to do it, and now they wish they did it”, Trump said. He added that Iranian officials “want to come to the White House”.
Although many of his allies have voiced reticence at the possibility of the United States entering another foreign conflict, Trump said “his supporters don’t want to see Iran get a nuclear weapon.”
Expert and US intelligence sources have said Iran was not working to develop a nuclear weapon. The Associated Press reports that three top officials at the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan membership organization based in the US, strongly urge the US “to choose nuclear nonproliferation diplomacy over war”. They added that military strikes cannot destroy Iran’s nuclear knowledge, but could encourage the country to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
