Evian: US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a deal with Iran had been completed and warned that Tehran would face severe consequences if it sought to develop or acquire a nuclear weapon, while praising Qatar’s role in helping secure the agreement and signalling confidence that the next phase of negotiations would be easier.
Speaking during a bilateral meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Trump said the agreement represented a major breakthrough after weeks of tensions in the Middle East.
“We have our deal done with Iran, and it should be successful. It goes to a second stage, which I think will be actually easier. I didn’t want to attack them last week, but we had no choice, and we did it twice, actually, we were doing it a third time, and we were able to not have to do that,” Trump said.
The US President dismissed reports that Washington would provide financial assistance to Iran as part of the arrangement.
“We are not investing any money in Iran, by the way. That rumour that got out there yesterday, it was ridiculous. We have the right to go in someday and do something… or if somebody wants to do something. But we have no obligation to invest money in Iran,” he said.
Trump said the central objective of the agreement was ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.
“The one thing that is happening that is of note, frankly, the only thing that only matters to me is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“They are not going to develop it, they are not going to buy it, they are not going to do anything with it. If they do, they will suffer unbelievable consequences. Not just a little bit, like, I won’t even tell you the consequences, but they are the ultimate consequences.”
He said he personally insisted that the agreement explicitly bar Iran from purchasing a nuclear weapon in addition to developing one.
“Marco was with me, and they originally wrote that we will not develop a nuclear weapon. I said, no no, you are not going to develop it, you are not going to buy it either. That took another couple of days of time,” Trump said.
He added: “If they do, all hell will rain down on them. They are not going to do that.”
The Emir welcomed the development and credited Trump for driving the process forward.
“I think, as you mentioned, Mr President, this is a very important deal. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but I think with this momentum, if you continue like that, Mr President, I think you can achieve and do greatly in that in the region,” he said.
The Qatari leader said Doha remained committed to strengthening its partnership with Washington.
Trump also highlighted the economic relationship between the two countries, claiming Qatar’s investments in the United States would exceed one trillion dollars.
“Qatar is going to be investing much more than a trillion dollars in the United States. We set a record. There has never been anything like it,” he said.
On Ukraine, Trump said he planned to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later in the day and reiterated his call for an end to the war.
“Russia should make a deal. Russia has lost tremendous amounts of people and so has Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. “I have settled 8 wars, this was the one I thought would be the easiest to settle. A lot of dislike between the two leaders.”
Voicing frustration over continued Israeli military operations in Lebanon, Trump said Hezbollah remained a persistent challenge. Syria could play a greater role in addressing the group, he added.
“I didn’t like where two hours before the signing of the agreement that there was an attack in Lebanon,” he said. “If Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, he will do the job. Syria will do the job.”
Referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said: “We have a great relationship, I didn’t like that he did an attack.” He added that “Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”
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