US President Donald Trump was asked by the press on Thursday about a New York Times report that he waved off Israeli plans to strike Iran's nuclear facilities in favor of diplomatic talks with the Islamic Republic.
The President did not deny the report, but rather said: "I wouldn't say 'waved off.' I'm not in a rush to do it because I think that Iran has a chance to have a great country and to live happily without death, and I'd like to see that. That's my first option."
This said, he added, "If there's a second option, I think it would be very bad for Iran. I think Iran wants to talk. I hope they want to talk. It's going to be very good for them if they do, and I'd like to see Iran thrive in the future and do fantastically well.
Trump continued: "I know the Iranian people, they're incredible people. Always have been, very smart, very energetic, very successful, and I don't want to do anything that's gonna hurt anybody, I really don't."
He reiterated that "Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. It's pretty simple. We're not looking to take their industry, we're not looking to take their land, all we're saying is they can't have a nuclear weapon.
Earlier in the day, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office released a statement which, while not confirming nor denying the report, stated: "Prime Minister Netanyahu has been leading the global campaign against the Iranian nuclear program for over a decade, even when there were those who belittled the threat and called it a 'political spin' and the Prime Minister 'paranoid.' The Prime Minister led countless overt and covert actions in the campaign against Iran's nuclear program; thanks to them, Iran does not have a nuclear arsenal," the Prime Minister's Office wrote in a statement.
It added: "The actions set Iran's nuclear program back by a decade, and that's thanks to the Prime Minister's insistence to stand up against the opposition from within and out to his aggressive policy against Iran. As the Prime Minister declared more than once: Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons."