Washington DC, March 30
US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he's optimistic about a deal with Iran, citing "very good negotiations" and Iran allowing 20 oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz as a "sign of respect".
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Trump said, "I do see a deal in Iran, yeah. Could be soon."
"So we've had very good negotiations today with Iran, getting a lot of the things that they should have given us a long time ago. See how it works out, but they're very good, moving along very nicely. And they've destroyed a lot of additional targets today. The Navy's gone, the Air Force's gone, we know that. We've destroyed many, many targets today. It was a big day. And we are negotiating with them directly and indirectly," he said further.
Trump added that his reversal of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) by former US President Barack Obama resulted in the prevention of Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
The original JCPOA (signed by the P5+1 and the EU) was designed to limit Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief--a framework Trump has systematically dismantled in favour of a new, yet-to-be-finalised agreement.
Trump mentioned that Iran initially agreed to send 10 boats, and then added 10 more, which he considers a positive development.
Trump suggested that the U.S. had essentially dismantled Iran's conventional capabilities while simultaneously talking to them.
"We have emissaries, but we are also dealing directly, and as you know, they've agreed to send 8 boats two days ago, and then they added another two, so it was 10 boats. And now today, they gave us, as a tribute, I don't know, I can't define it exactly, but they gave us, I think, out of a sign of respect, 20 boats of oil, big, big boats of oil going through the Hormuz Strait. And that's taking place starting tomorrow morning over the next couple of days, a lot of boats. And I would only say that we're doing extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up, whether it's the B-2 bombers or just terminating, as an example, the Iran nuclear deal done by Barack Hussein Obama, probably the worst deal we've ever done as a country, one of the dumbest deals we've ever done. But I terminated it, fortunately, otherwise right now they'd have a nuclear weapon," he said.
Iran nuclear deal was an agreement to limit the Iranian nuclear program in return for sanctions relief and other provisions. The agreement was finalised in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran and the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)--China, France, Russia, the UK, US--plus Germany) together with the European Union.
- ANI
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