Trump says he backs idea of inspectors checking Iran nuclear sites
President Donald Trump said on Friday he would like inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or another respected source to be able to inspect Iran's nuclear sites after they were bombed last weekend.
At a press conference in the White House briefing room, Trump said he believes the sites were 'obliterated.' He has rejected any suggestion that damage to the sites was not as profound as he has said.
But Trump said he would support the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, going in to check the sites that were bombed.
The agency's chief, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that ensuring the resumption of IAEA inspections was his top priority, as none had taken place since Israel began bombing on 13 June. However, Iran's Parliament approved moves on Wednesday to suspend such inspections.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, indicated on Friday that Tehran may reject any request by the head of the agency for visits to Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump also said he does not believe Iran wants to still seek a nuclear weapon after US and Israeli bombing raids.
He said Iran still wants to meet about the way forward. The White House had said on Thursday that no meeting between the US and an Iranian delegation had been scheduled thus far.
Trump also said on Friday he would 'absolutely' bomb Iran again if intelligence indicated the country was still able to enrich uranium to nuclear weapons-grade.
Asked at the White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week's sorties were not successful in ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said:
Trump said Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'got beat to hell' in the hostilities involving the United States and Israel and that 'it was a great time to end it.'
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Associated Press
8 minutes ago
- Associated Press
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'Silence regarding the terms suggests that there is less substance to the deal than the Trump Administration implies,″ said Moon, who also served as a diplomat in China. Wait. This sounds familiar. How did we get here? The agreement that emerged Thursday and Friday builds on a 'framework'' that Trump announced June 11 after two days of high-level U.S.-China talks in London. Then, he announced, China had agreed to ease restrictions on rare earths. In return, the United States said it would stop seeking to revoke the visas of Chinese students on U.S. college campuses. And last month, after another meeting in Geneva, the two countries had agreed to dramatically reduce massive taxes they'd slapped on each other's products, which had reached as high as 145% against China and 125% against the U.S. Those triple-digit tariffs threatened to effectively end trade between the United States and China and caused a frightening sell-off in financial markets. 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Washington Post
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- Washington Post
Trump risks blinding himself by politicizing Iran intelligence
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