President Donald Trump said Thursday that he does not want Israel to attack Iran as long as an agreement can be reached with Iran on its nuclear program.
Trump’s comment came in the East Room following a bill signing ceremony.
Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Trump if he was trying to talk Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu out of potentially preparing for a possible attack on Iran, or if he was okay with it.
“Yeah, it’s a very fair question. Look, I want to have an agreement with Iran… We’re fairly close to a pretty good agreement. It’s got to be better than pretty good, though…I’d much prefer an agreement,” Trump said.
He then said that if an agreement can be reached, he does not want Netanyahu to launch an attack on Iran.
“As long as I think there is an agreement, I don’t want them going in, because I think it would blow it. It might help, actually, but it also could blow it. But we’ve had very good discussions with Iran,” he stated.
“Whether or not we get there, I can’t tell you, but it’ll, it’ll happen soon,” he added. “I say this, Peter, very strongly, they can’t have, whether it’s going in or not going in, they can’t have a nuclear weapon. I’d prefer the more friendly path.”
Doocy followed up asking what the Israelis may have told the president that led him to begin evacuating servicemembers’ dependents in the Middle East.
“Look, there’s a chance of massive conflict,” he said. “We have a lot of American people in this area, and I said, ‘We’ve got to tell them to get out,’ because something could happen soon, and I don’t want to be the one that didn’t give any warning, and missiles are flying into their buildings.”
“It’s possible. So I had to do it. You know, I had the choice: Do I do it or not? Doing it has its downside, but it also has its upside, like you’re going to save a lot of lives, if it should happen. Hopefully that doesn’t happen,” he added.
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