Trump doesn’t think Iran deal needed after facilities ‘blown up to kingdom come’
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his administration plans to resume talks with Iran next week, but he doesn’t care if a nuclear agreement is signed because Iran’s facilities have been “blown up to kingdom come”.
“We are going to talk to them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement. I don’t know…I don’t care if I have an agreement or not,” he said.
“The only thing we would be asking for is what we were asking for before…we want no nuclear, but we destroyed the nuclear… it’s blown up to kingdom come. I don’t care very strongly about it. If we got a document, it wouldn’t be bad.”
Trump’s comments during a Nato summit in the Netherlands come amid conflicting reports about the damage US strikes did to Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities over the weekend.
On Wednesday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the country’s nuclear facilities had been “badly damaged” by the American strikes.
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But a day earlier, several US media outlets reported unnamed sources briefed on a battle damage assessment by the Defence Intelligence Agency that claimed the US strikes had only set Iran’s programme back a few months. CNN cited one source as saying that some of Iran’s centrifuges were “intact”.
Trump confirmed the leak was legitimate, but accused American media outlets of misrepresenting the assessment.
“The document said ‘it could be limited or it could be very severe [damage]'… and you didn’t choose to put that,” he said, addressing a CNN reporter. CNN was the first to report the leak.
Trump said the US received more intelligence about the damage after the report, including by speaking with sources on the ground in Iran with access to Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We have also spoken to people who have seen the site. The site is obliterated. Everything nuclear is down there. They didn’t take it out,” he said.
Trump was likely referring to reports that Iran was able to move a stockpile of uranium from sites before the US struck them.
An Arab official briefed on the matter previously told Middle East Eye that Iran had received advance warning of the US strikes. Amwaj Media first reported that Tehran was notified before the US attacked.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that just five days into the war, its inspectors lost track of Iran’s 409 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. That amount, which could be easily transported in a container by truck, is enough for 10 nuclear warheads if Iran were to pursue weaponisation.
Before Israel’s attack, Iran and the US were in talks to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that his country was willing to return to negotiations over its nuclear programme, according to state media.
Since launching strikes on Iran over the weekend, Trump has moved to de-escalate tensions. He thanked Iran on Monday for providing advance notice about its retaliatory strike on the US’s al-Udeid military base in Qatar.
Trump announced a ceasefire to the war a few hours after the attack. On Tuesday, he lashed out at both Israel and Iran when it appeared to wobble, saying the two foes "have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they’re doing”.
Speaking at the Nato summit, Trump said both Iran and Israel were “tired [and] exhausted” and “satisfied to go home and get out”.
He also said he would have no problem with Iran selling its oil to China. The US slapped sanctions on Iran's oil sales to China during the nuclear talks.
“They just had a war. They fought it bravely. They are in the oil business…they are going to need money to put that country back into shape….If they are going to sell oil, they are going to sell oil,” Trump said.
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