President Donald Trump attended a breakfast with business leaders at the St. Regis Doha hotel in Qatar on Thursday morning where he remained firm that Tehran must choose between never having a nuclear weapon or dealing with “violence like people haven’t seen before.”
Just days before, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had made comments that calls to dismantle Tehran’s nuclear facilities were “unacceptable,” and that “Iran will not give up its peaceful nuclear rights under any circumstances and will not back down from its rights in the face of pressure.”
Trump suggested Iran may now be informally moving toward compliance with international demands to halt its nuclear weapons ambitions, but emphasized that a final agreement has not yet been reached.
TRUMP OFFERS IRAN CHOICE: DROP NUCLEAR WEAPONS OR FACE ‘MAXIMUM PRESSURE’
“I want them to succeed. I want them to end up being a great country, frankly, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s the only thing. It’s very simple,” Trump said. “It’s not like I have to give you 30 pages’ worth of details. There’s only one sentence. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. And I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this.”
He went on to state simply that there were limited options when it came to the deal and that he personally would rather go the more amicable route.
“There’s two steps. There’s a very, very nice step, and there’s a violent step. There’s violence like people haven’t seen before, and I hope we’re not going to have to do this. I don’t want to do the second step. Some people do. Many people do. I don’t want to do that step,” he said.
REPUBLICANS URGE TRUMP TO FOLLOW THROUGH ON HIS PLAN TO DISMANTLE IRAN’S NUCLEAR CAPABILITIES
Congressional Republicans are urging Trump to remain committed to a hardline Iran strategy, calling for the complete dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear enrichment capabilities in a letter that drew wide support.
Trump said at the breakfast that he is working toward a long-term solution that will bring peace to a country that he says “is a very special place with a special royal family.”
“So we’ll see what happens, but we’re in very serious negotiations with Iran for long-term peace. And if we do that, it’ll be fantastic. And for this country in particular, because you’re right next door. You’re a stone’s throw away, not even right here, a foot away. You can walk right into Iran. Other countries are much further away, so probably it’s not quite the same level of danger, but we are going to protect this country. It is a very special place with a special royal family,” Trump said.
“And the head of the royal family is two heads of the royal family, really, if you think. Great people. And they’re going to be protected by the United States of America. And I think we’re not going to have to do it because I believe very strongly in peace.”
Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
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