Washington DC, June 7: United States President Donald Trump has on Thursday said Iran was failing as a country after the imposition of powerful US sanctions on the state last year, adding things could be changed during talks with the leadership in Tehran.
According to Dawn news reports, ahead of a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in western France, Caen, Trump told reporters, “When I became president, Iran was a true state of terror. They still are and were undisputed champions of terror.”
He added, “They are failing as a nation, but I don’t want them to fail as a nation. We can turn that around very quickly but the sanctions have been extraordinary [in] how powerful they have been.”
Both Trump and Macron have stressed they don’t want Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. The French president has said two sides wanted to deduct Iranian ballistic missile programme, “contain” Iranian regional activity in the Middle East and further achieve peace in the region.
“I think we do share the same objectives on Iran. We had an accord until 2025 and we want to go further and have full certainty in the long run,” Macron said.
“To build that we need to start a negotiation. We need to open a new negotiation,” he added.
Trump has criticized ex-President Barack Obama for not curbing Iranian nuclear programme or its role in disputes around the Middle East. Trump called on Tehran to come on the negotiation table to reach a common agreement.
“I understand they want to talk and that’s fine, we’ll talk,” Trump said of Iran. “One thing they can’t have is nuclear weapons.”