President Donald Trump told the New York Post in an interview published Wednesday that he is “much less confident” that the U.S. will be able to reach a nuclear agreement with the Iranian regime.
The Post reported:
“I don’t know,” Trump, 78, told Devine when asked Monday 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.
“They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but 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.”
Trump has pushed for a deal, and reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on airstrikes against the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities — at least while negotiations were ongoing and had a chance of success.
The Trump administration sent Iran what was described by the White House as a “detailed and acceptable” proposal for a deal. But Trump has also warned that if Iran refused to accept a deal, he would lead efforts to remove the Iranian nuclear program by force.
One sticking point has been Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity. Trump has said it must be dismantled; Iran has insisted on retaining its capacity to weaponize uranium.
Critics have said that Trump’s proposed deal looks similar to the one negotiated by President Barack Obama, and from which Trump withdrew in 2018. But Trump has been reluctant to resort to force — at least thus far.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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