A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.
President Trump said a potential nuclear deal with Iran is “down to the final strokes” and could be announced within days.
“That’s going to be the next thing you’ll be talking about: Iran,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. “There’ll be some interesting days ahead. That’s all I can tell you. You know we’re down to the final strokes with Iran. That’s going to be an interesting time, and we’ll see what happens.”
He added, “We’re down to the final moments. Can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Mr. Trump said he wrote a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for a new nuclear deal with the U.S.
“I’ve written him a letter saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing,’” Mr. Trump said during an interview that aired on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
In the letter, he said he hopes Iran will negotiate “because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran.”
“I’m not sure that everybody agrees with me, but we can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily. But, the time is happening now,” he said. “The time is coming up. Something is going to happen one way or the other.”
Tehran did not confirm Friday that it had received the letter, The Associated Press reported.
Mr. Trump told reporters that Iran was close to reaching a deal with his administration in 2020 but backed out after he lost the election to Joseph R. Biden.
“When I lost, they saw this person, who is a stupid person, a very stupid person, and they said, ‘Let’s not make a deal,’” Mr. Trump said. “He took the sanctions off, and they became richer under Biden.”
Israel and the U.S. have pledged to never let Iran obtain a nuclear weapon. Tehran has been enriching uranium to levels close to those needed for nuclear arms.
The president said on social media Wednesday that he wants Iran to “be a great and successful country, but one that cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
He added, “Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens are greatly exaggerated.”
Mr. Trump’s hard-line stance on Iran echoes the approach during his first term. He withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal struck under President Obama and slapped sanctions on Tehran. He heavily criticized Mr. Obama for striking the deal.
“This was a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made,” Mr. Trump said at the time.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.