‘We can make a good deal right now, not a great one’: Donald Trump on US-Iran peace deal

US President Donald Trump said that while they were making progress, the US-Iran deal that they could have right now is probably not a great one. He said the deal they are looking for would take time. 

“All I can say is that we can make a good deal right now, but maybe not a great deal – and if it's not a great deal, we're not making it. It will probably not go quickly but it would be foolproof. I think we are doing pretty well,” he told reporters at the White House.

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He blamed former president Barack Obama for Iran’s nuclear capacity, and the JCPOA. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme would be exclusively peaceful in return for relief from sanctions and other provisions. 

“It was the worst deal. It was the path for Iran to have a nuclear weapon very quickly. Frankly, Obama picked the wrong country, he should have picked another country,” said Trump. 

“But we have things understood with Iran now. It’s been nasty. They have lost their leaders. And it really is regime change. We didn’t set out for a regime change but the fact is that we are dealing with a totally different group of people than we were at the beginning. And frankly, I find them to be much more reasonable. I find them to be smarter. This is regime change. One regime is gone, another regime is gone, we are dealing with the third. Some of them are gone too,” he said.

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Trump also said the Iranian leadership thought they could outwait him because of the upcoming midterms. “I don't care about the midterms,” he said. Trump and his administration had initially said the war would last four to six weeks, but ⁠it is now approaching its fourth month.