President Trump on Friday all but guaranteed that Iran would never restart its nuclear program.
Trump was asked during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel whether he is prepared to use military force to rein in Iran’s nuclear program or whether he has a “Plan B” separate from the Iran nuclear deal or military action.
“I don’t talk about whether or not I’d use military force,” Trump replied. “It’s not appropriate to be talking about. But I can tell you this: they will not be doing nuclear weapons. That I can tell you, OK? They’re not going to be doing nuclear weapons. You can bank on it.”
The president is facing a May 12 deadline to decide whether to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, which was negotiated under the Obama administration. Trump has called the deal “insane” and “ridiculous.”
The future of the agreement was a topic of Trump’s meetings with both Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, who also visited the president at the White House this week.
Macron said Wednesday he believes he failed to convince Trump to remain in the nuclear deal and said he expects the president to withdraw for “domestic reasons.”
Merkel, meanwhile, said that while the Iran nuclear deal is “anything but perfect,” it is of “prime importance” to Germany.
“It will not solve all the problems with Iran. It is one piece of the mosaic, one building block, if you like, on which we can build up the structure,” she said. “And that when the United Kingdom, France, and Germany work together with the American colleagues, this was brought about, and we will now see what sort of decisions are made by our American partners.”
“I said that the whole of the region obviously is of prime importance to us because it’s not a thousand kilometers away as is the case, for example, between the USA and Syria. But Syria and Iran are countries that are right on our doorstep,” she added. “That is of prime importance for us and we’ll continue to be in very close talks on this.”
