WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on Monday the Tuesday deadline he has set for Iran to make a deal is final, calling Iran’s peace proposal significant but not good enough.
Trump has warned U.S. forces will unleash broad attacks on Iranian infrastructure if his Tuesday night deadline is not met. Iran has rejected Trump’s deadline.
“They made a proposal, and it’s a significant proposal. It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” Trump told reporters during an Easter egg event for children on the White House South Lawn.
“It could end very quickly, the war, if they do what they have to do. They have to do certain things. They know that, they’ve been negotiating I think in good faith,” he said.
Trump’s senior aides have been negotiating with Iran indirectly through Pakistan, attempting to get a deal in which Iran will forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the oil transit waterway. Iran said it wanted a permanent end to the war, not just a temporary ceasefire.
Trump said it appeared the latest team representing the Iranian government is “not as radicalized” as others who have been killed in airstrikes,. “We think they’re actually smarter,” he said.
Trump said if it were up to him, the United States would take control of Iran’s oil, but he said the American people would probably not understand such a move.
