<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said the United States will “lead the pack” in attacking Iran if talks over Tehran’s nuclear program do not result in a new deal, according to a Time Magazine interview.<\/p>\n
The US president — in the interview conducted April 22 and published Friday — nonetheless expressed hope that such a deal could be reached, while also saying he was open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president face-to-face.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“It’s possible we’ll have to attack because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told Time.<\/p>\n
The renewed threat comes as Washington and Tehran continue talks over the clerical state’s nuclear program, with a third round slated for Saturday in Oman.<\/p>\n
Both sides expressed optimism at the end of the last meeting in Rome, without providing any details.<\/p>\n
The negotiations have thus far excluded Iran’s arch-foe Israel, though Trump on Tuesday said after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “we are on the same side of every issue.”<\/p>\n
Trump, asked by Time about reports he had blocked Israel from conducting a unilateral attack against Iran, replied: “That’s not right.”<\/p>\n
“I didn’t stop them. But I didn’t make it comfortable for them, because I think we can make a deal without the attack,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Ultimately I was going to leave that choice to them, but I said I would much prefer a deal than bombs being dropped.”<\/p>\n
Trump denied that he was worried about Netanyahu dragging the United States into war with Iran, saying: “He may go into a war. But we’re not getting dragged in.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Trump added he “may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal.”<\/p>\n
“If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack,” Trump told Time.<\/p>\n
Trump in 2018 tore up a nuclear deal with Iran negotiated under president Barack Obama and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Teheran.<\/p>\n
Western powers and Israel, considered by experts the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East, have long accused Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Iran has always denied the charge, insisting its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would be willing to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
\n \n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington: President Donald Trump said the United States will “lead the pack” in attacking Iran if talks over Tehran’s nuclear program do not result in a new deal, according to a Time Magazine interview. The US president — in the interview conducted April 22 and published Friday — nonetheless expressed hope that such a deal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3914,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3912\/revisions\/3914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}