US President Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview on Wednesday that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should “be very worried" despite the talks with the US on a potential deal.
“I would say he should be very worried, yeah. He should be. As you know, they're negotiating with us," Trump said.
The President also noted that the US has had the anti-regime protesters’ back, adding, “Look, that country's a mess right now because of us. We went in, we wiped out their nuclear. We have peace in the Middle East. If I didn't take out their nuclear, think of it, if we didn't take out that nuclear, we wouldn't have peace in the Middle East because the Arab countries could have never done that. They were very, very afraid of Iran. They're not afraid of Iran anymore."
“Those beautiful B-2 bombers went in, and they hit their target, every single bomb, and obliterated it, and because of that - they were going to have a nuclear weapon within one month - that was a big threat. They're not going to have it anymore," stated Trump.
He was asked why there is a need for a deal if Iran’s nuclear program has been obliterated and whether Iran is trying to restart their nuclear program and replied, “Well, I heard that they are, and if they do, and I let them know, if they do, we're going to send them right back and do their job again."
“They tried to go back to the site. They weren't even able to get near it. There was total obliteration. But they were thinking about starting a new site in a different part of the country. We found out about it. I said, ‘You do that, we're going to do very bad things to you,’" said Trump.
Trump’s interview with NBC News came as the US government said on Wednesday that it had agreed to the request of Arab countries to hold talks with Iran on Friday in Oman, just hours after announcing their cancellation.
That announcement followed reports that the US conveyed a message to Iran that it would not agree to their demands to change the location and format of the talks, which were originally planned to take place in Istanbul.
"We told them: 'It's either this or nothing.' They said, 'Okay, then nothing,'" said a senior American official, adding, "We want to achieve a real deal quickly, or people will look for other options."