Iran acquiring nuclear weapons is not acceptable to the United States, its president Donald Trump said today.
Trump, who has been highly critical of the Iranian nuclear deal and has frequently talked about walking out of it told reporters that scrapping the deal does not mean that he would not negotiate a new deal.
"In seven years that deal will have expired, and Iran is free to go ahead and create nuclear weapons. That's not acceptable. Seven years is tomorrow. That's not acceptable," Trump said responding to a question during a joint news conference with the visiting Nigerian President.
He supported the statement of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this regard.
"That is just not an acceptable situation. I've been saying that's happening. They're not sitting back idly. They're setting off missiles which they say are for television purposes. I don't think so," he said. Trump has to make a decision by May 12 on America's continuation in remaining in the deal.
"We'll see what happens. I'm not telling you what I'm doing, but a lot of people think they know. On or before the 12th, we'll make a decision. That doesn't mean we won't negotiate a real agreement. You know, this is an agreement that wasn't approved by too many people. And it's a horrible agreement for the United States," Trump said.
He alleged that the previous Obama Administration gave Iran USD150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. You know what we got? We got nothing. We got nothing, he said.
"So that doesn't mean I wouldn't negotiate a new agreement. We'll see what happens. But I think if anything, what's happening today and what's happened over the last little while and what we've learned has really shown that I've been 100 percent right," Trump said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)