Trump says he won’t be much more patient with Iran
· The Straits Times- Trump declared he won't be "much more patient", urging Iran to make a deal, and views retrieving enriched uranium as primarily for public relations.
- The US demands Iran renounce enrichment, but Tehran, an NPT member, asserts its right to peaceful nuclear technology, threatening 90% purity if attacked again.
- A fragile ceasefire persists after US-Israel strikes killed thousands. Human rights groups criticised Trump's rhetoric, including threats to destroy Iran's civilisation.
WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump said he would not be much more patient with Iran as he urged Tehran to reach a deal with Washington while also suggesting that the quest to retrieve Iran’s enriched uranium was more about perception than about security.
“I am not going to be much more patient,” Mr Trump said in an interview aired on the night of May 14 on Fox News’ Hannity programme. “They should make a deal.”
When asked in the interview about the necessity to retrieve enriched uranium from Iran, Mr Trump suggested the quest was not necessary except for public relations purposes.
“I don’t think it’s necessary except from a public relations standpoint,” Mr Trump said in the interview.
“I just feel better if I got it, actually. But it’s, I think, it’s more for public relations than it is for anything else.”
The US, one of nine countries in the world recognised as having nuclear weapons, insists that Iran should move its highly enriched uranium stockpile abroad and renounce domestic enrichment. Tehran, which does not have nuclear weapons, denies seeking them but says it has the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iranian parliamentary spokesman Ebrahim Rezaei said on May 12 that the country could enrich uranium up to 90 per cent purity, a level considered weapons-grade, if Iran was attacked again.
The more than five-week ceasefire between the US and Iran remains fragile, with neither side appearing close to a deal to end the war that is also unpopular in the United States.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28. Tehran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israel strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
Human rights groups have widely criticised Mr Trump for his rhetoric during the war, including when he threatened to attack civilian infrastructure and destroy Iran’s entire civilisation, and when he said the US Navy was acting “like pirates” to carry out a naval blockade of Iranian ports. REUTERS