Trump to Decide ‘Within Two Weeks’ Whether to Take Action on Iran

TIME

President Donald Trump will make a decision within two weeks on whether to strike on Iran, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a press briefing on Thursday.

Transcript

00:00I have a message directly from the president, and I quote,

00:03based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations

00:07that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future,

00:11I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.

00:15That's a quote directly from the president for all of you today.

00:19Is he seeing any signs of progress?

00:21He obviously is holding out hope for negotiations,

00:23but is he seeing any inklings of progress that give him that hope that talks are still possible?

00:28Well, that's why he said in the statement that I just read for all of you,

00:31based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations

00:33that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future,

00:37he will make that decision within the next two weeks.

00:39What makes him think there's still a substantial chance is my question.

00:42I'm not going to get into the reasoning and the rationale.

00:44The president believes that, but that's his position,

00:46and he will make a decision within the next two weeks.

00:48Caroline, what exactly would a deal with Iran need to entail?

00:53No enrichment of a uranium, and it would absolutely not.

00:57Iran is absolutely not able to achieve a nuclear weapon.

01:01The president has been very clear about that.

01:03And, by the way, the deal that Special Envoy Whitcoff proposed to the Iranians

01:08was both realistic and acceptable within its terms,

01:11and that's why the president sent that deal to them.

01:15Two quick questions.

01:17When the president says Iran is very close to a nuclear weapon,

01:20is he relying on U.S. intelligence or intelligence sharing from an ally to make that assessment?

01:25It is a fact, and the United States government maintains this fact,

01:29that Iran has never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

01:33And then if the U.S. were to take some type of military action,

01:37would the president go to Congress to seek war authority?

01:43I'm not going to engage in hypotheticals.

01:45I gave you the statement from the president.

01:46He'll make a decision within two weeks.

01:48Start building a weapon, or did he mean Iran is a few weeks away from completing the production of a weapon?

01:55I'm glad you asked that, Ouija.

01:57It's an important question, and it's one, frankly, the media has been getting wrong.

02:00Let's be very clear.

02:02Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon.

02:05All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that.

02:09And it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon,

02:12which would, of course, pose an existential threat not just to Israel,

02:16but to the United States and to the entire world.

02:19And that is something that the entire world, including countries like Russia,

02:23is in agreement with, that Iran should not and cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.

Category

Transcript

Recommended