The President said a military strike would be inappropriate as talks near a resolution, emphasizing that a strong deal with inspections could save lives, but noted that the situation could shift at any moment.”
President Donald Trump spoke to the press on Wednesday at the Oval Office and said that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to take action that would jeopardize the talks with Iran.
Asked if he warned the Prime Minister not to take action, he answered: “I’ll be honest – yes, I did,” and added: “It’s not a warning, I said I don’t think it’s appropriate right now. We’re having very good discussions with them. I said I don’t think it’s appropriate right now because if we could settle it with a very strong document, with inspections, and no trust. I don’t trust anybody.”
He explained: “I want it very strong, where we could go in with inspectors, we can take whatever we want, we could blow up whatever we want, but nobody gets killed. We can blow up a lab, but nobody’s going to be in the lab, as opposed to everybody being in the lab when we blow it up.”
The President reiterated: “I told him that this would be inappropriate to do because we’re very close to a solution.”
He noted that “that could change at any moment. It could change with a phone call, but right now I think they want to make a deal, and if we can make a deal, it will save a lot of lives.”
Earlier in his remarks, the President discussed the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip: “We are getting food to the people of Gaza. It’s been a very nasty situation, a very nasty fight. October 7th was a very nasty day, the worst that I think I’ve ever seen. It was a horrible day, and people aren’t going to forget that either. So we’ll see how that all works out.”
