US president says a deal with Tehran is possible, but warns Iran and Israel could restart war
\nWashington: US President Donald Trump hailed the swift end to war between Iran and Israel and said Washington would likely seek a commitment from Tehran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks with Iranian officials next week.
\nTrump said his decision to join Israel\u2019s attacks by targeting Iranian nuclear sites with huge bunker-busting bombs had ended the war, calling it \u201ca victory for everybody\u201d. \u201cIt was very severe. It was obliteration,\u201d he said, shrugging off an initial assessment by the US Defense Intelligence Agency that Iran\u2019s path to building a nuclear weapon may have been set back only by months.
\nSpeaking in The Hague where he attended a NATO summit on Wednesday, he said he did not see Iran getting involved again in developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has always denied decades of accusations by Western leaders that it is seeking nuclear arms. \u201cWe\u2019re going to talk to them next week, with Iran. We may sign an agreement. I don\u2019t know. To me, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that necessary,\u201d Trump said.
\nAnxious Iranians and Israelis sought to resume normal life after the most intense confrontation ever between the two foes. Israel\u2019s nuclear agency assessed the strikes had \u201cset back Iran\u2019s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years\u201d. The White House also circulated the Israeli assessment, although Trump said he was not relying on Israeli intelligence.
\nHe said he was confident Tehran would pursue a diplomatic path towards reconciliation. \u201cI\u2019ll tell you, the last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover,\u201d he said.
\nIf Iran tried to rebuild its nuclear programme, \u201cWe won\u2019t let that happen. Number one, militarily we won\u2019t,\u201d he said, adding that he thought \u201cwe\u2019ll end up having something of a relationship with Iran\u201d to resolve the issue. The head of the UN\u2019s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, dismissed what he called the \u201chourglass approach\u201d of assessing damage to Iran\u2019s nuclear programme in terms of months needed to rebuild as besides the point for an issue that needed a long-term solution.
\n\u201cIn any case, the technological knowledge is there and the industrial capacity is there. That, no one can deny. So we need to work together with them,\u201d he said. His priority was returning international inspectors to Iranian nuclear sites, which he said was the only way to find out precisely what state they were in.
\nIRAN President hints at domestic reforms
\nIsrael\u2019s bombing campaign, launched with a surprise attack on June 13, wiped out the top echelon of Iran\u2019s military leadership and killed leading nuclear scientists. Iran responded with missiles that pierced Israel\u2019s defences in large numbers for the first time. Iranian authorities said 627 people were killed and nearly 5,000 injured in Iran, where the extent of the damage could not be independently confirmed because of tight restrictions on media. Twenty-eight people were killed in Israel.
\nIsrael claimed to have achieved its goals of destroying Iran\u2019s nuclear sites and missiles; Iran claimed to have forced the end of the war by penetrating Israeli defences.
\nTrump said both sides were exhausted but the conflict could restart. Israel\u2019s demonstration that it could target Iran\u2019s senior leadership seemingly at will poses perhaps the biggest challenge yet for Iran\u2019s clerical rulers, at a critical juncture when they must find a successor for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, now 86 and in power for 36 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US president says a deal with Tehran is possible, but warns Iran and Israel could restart war Washington: US President Donald Trump hailed the swift end to war between Iran and Israel and said Washington would likely seek a commitment from Tehran to end its nuclear ambitions at talks with Iranian officials next week. Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n