US President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on Tuesday, before taking off for a visit to China, and commented on the situation with Iran, warning the Islamic Republic it must accept the US terms for a deal to end the war and address its nuclear program.
“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job," Trump said, rejecting the idea that rising prices in the US pushed him to seek an end to the war.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all," the President clarified.
“The most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Every American understands it. If the stock market goes up or down a little bit, the American people understand it."
Trump stressed that the US will “win it one way or the other. We’ll win it peacefully or otherwise. No matter how you cut it, we win."
Commenting on the Iranian response to the US proposal, which he rejected as unacceptable on Sunday, Trump said that Iran agreed that they will never have nuclear weapons “and then that’s not what they sent to me. We don’t play games."
“We have Iran very much under control. We are either gonna make a deal or they will be decimated," he stressed.
On Monday, sources told CNN that Trump has expressed profound dissatisfaction with the progress of diplomatic efforts to end the conflict with Iran, signaling that the United States may soon pivot back to active combat operations.
According to the sources within the administration, the President’s patience has worn thin due to Tehran’s refusal to provide meaningful concessions.
Meanwhile, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on social media that the only option is accepting the Iranian proposal to end the war.
“There is no alternative but to accept the rights of the Iranian people as laid out in the 14-point proposal. Any other approach will be completely inconclusive; nothing but one failure after another," he wrote.
“The longer they drag their feet, the more American taxpayers will pay for it," stated Ghalibaf.