US President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Iran with “very traumatic” consequences if it does not sign the nuclear deal.
“We have to come to an agreement or it will be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we have to come to an agreement,” Trump said. “It will be very traumatic for Iran if they don’t make a deal,” he added.
Trump, who is considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East to pressure Iran, recalled the US military strikes he ordered on Tehran’s nuclear facilities during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in July last year.
“They should have made a deal the first time, then they got the Midnight Hammer instead,” he said.
“We’ll see if we can come to an agreement with them, and if not, we’ll have to go to phase two. The second phase will be very difficult for them,” Trump was quoted as saying by AFP.
Speaking a day after hosting Netanyahu at the White House, Trump said he hoped for an outcome “within the next month” of Washington’s talks with Tehran over its nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was skeptical about the quality of any such deal.
Netanyahu traveled to Washington to push Trump to take a tougher line in the Iran nuclear talks, particularly on including the Islamic Republic’s ballistic missile arsenal.
But the Israeli and US leaders appeared to remain at odds, with Trump saying after their meeting at the White House on Wednesday that he had insisted the talks continue.
Speaking in Washington on Thursday before flying to Israel, Netanyahu said Trump believed he was laying the groundwork for a deal.
“They believe that the conditions that he is creating, combined with the fact that they certainly realize that they made a mistake in not reaching an agreement last time, can create the conditions for a good deal to be reached,” Netanyahu said, according to a video statement from his office.
But the Israeli prime minister added: “I will not hide from you that I have expressed general skepticism about the quality of any deal with Iran.”
Any deal “must include elements that are very important from our perspective,” Netanyahu continued, listing Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for armed groups such as the Palestinian Hamas movement, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“It’s not just a nuclear issue,” he said.
Despite their differences over Iran, Trump signaled his strong personal support for Netanyahu when he criticized Israeli President Isaac Herzog for rejecting his request to pardon the prime minister on corruption charges.
“You have a president who refuses to pardon him. I think that man should be ashamed of himself,” Trump said Thursday.
Trump has repeatedly hinted at potential US military action against Iran after its deadly crackdown on protests last month, even as Washington and Tehran resumed talks last week with a meeting in Oman.
The latest round of talks between the two enemies was interrupted by Israel’s war with Iran and US strikes.
Iran has so far refused to expand the new talks beyond the issue of its nuclear program. Tehran denies it is seeking a nuclear weapon and has said it will not give in to “excessive demands” on the issue.