IRAN - President Donald Trump said Wednesday he urgently wants “to make a deal” with Iran to wind down its nuclear programme but Tehran must end its support of proxy groups throughout the Mideast as part of any potential agreement.
Trump, who is in the midst of a three-country visit to the region, also discussed Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme in one-on-one talks with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The American president expressed measured confidence that the US effort with Tehran would “work out one way or another.”
But in comments earlier in the day, at a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Trump made clear he expected Tehran to end its role as the chief financial backer of the militant groups. Iran “must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars and permanently and verifiably cease pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Trump told the GCC leaders. “They cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (The Gleaner)
