President Trump called the Iran nuclear deal a “horrible agreement
for the United States” in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's bombshell allegations about Tehran's covert activity – but
stopped short of saying whether he'd abandon the deal ahead of a looming
deadline.
The president addressed the claims during a Rose Garden
press conference Monday afternoon, moments after Netanyahu held a
dramatic presentation revealing intelligence he says shows Iran is lying
about its nuclear weapons program.
“That is just not an acceptable situation,” Trump said.
Trump said Netanyahu’s claims show Iran is “not sitting back idly."
"They're setting off missiles which they say are for television purposes," Trump said. He added: "I don't think so.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders responded,
“The United States is aware of the information just released by Israel
and continues to examine it carefully. This information provides new and
compelling details about Iran’s efforts to develop missile-deliverable
nuclear weapons. These facts are consistent with what the United States
has long known: Iran had a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program
that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own
people. The Iranian regime has shown it will use destructive weapons
against its neighbors and others. Iran must never have nuclear weapons.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to exit the
Iran deal, which was signed during the Obama administration. A crucial
deadline for re-certifying the deal is on the horizon.
Netanyahu clearly intended for Trump to see his
presentation, as he noted that Trump would soon make a key decision on
the Iran deal.
“I’m sure he’ll do the right thing,” Netanyahu said.
On Monday, Trump suggested he could seek to negotiate a new agreement, something he discussed during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Washington last week.
“So we'll see what happens,” Trump said, when asked
about the announcement. “I'm not telling you what I'm doing. [A lot] of
people think they know. And on or before the 12th, we'll make a
decision.”
The president made the comments during a joint press conference with visiting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
Trump said that overall, “what we've learned has really shown that I have been 100 percent right.”
Netanyahu said during his earlier presentation that new
intelligence shows Iran lied about never having nuclear weapons and
lied again by not coming clean under the terms of the 2015 deal. "The
Iran deal ... is based on lies," he said.
The information was obtained within the past 10 days,
Israeli officials told Fox News. Netanyahu said the files were moved to a
"highly secret" location in Tehran, and contained materials spread over
55,000 pages and 55,000 files on 183 CD's.
"The nuclear deal gives Iran a clear path to producing an atomic arsenal," Netanyahu said Monday.
NETANYAHU SAYS IRAN ‘BRAZENLY LYING’ AFTER SIGNING NUCLEAR DEAL
Netanyahu's statement came on the heels of a missile
attack in northern Syria that killed nearly 26-pro-government fighters,
mostly Iranians, according to a Syria war monitoring group. Israel had
no comment on the strike, but there was widespread speculation that
Israel was behind it. Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters
to back Assad's forces in Syria's seven-year civil war.
Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon on Monday,
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States “had nothing to do
with the strike last night.”
Mattis also said the evidence cited by Netanyahu on
Monday did not come up during his discussions with the Israeli minister
of defense last week. But he said parts of Iran nuclear deal “certainly
need to be fixed.”
“The Iran Deal was and has always been a foreign policy debacle. But today’s stunning intel presentation from
@netanyahu provides
even more troubling context. All along it was built on a crumbling
foundation of lies, deception, and naivete. This 'deal' should be
shredded,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., tweeted.
Israel and Iran are arch-enemies, and Israel has said
repeatedly it would not allow Iran to establish a permanent military
presence in Syria. Iran, which is backing the forces of Syrian President
Bashar Assad, has accused Israel of carrying out another airstrike in
Syria this month that killed seven Iranian military advisers and vowed
revenge.
“That is just not an acceptable situation."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday ratcheted
up the Trump administration's rhetoric against Iran and offered warm
support to Israel and Saudi Arabia in their standoff with Tehran.
"The United States is with Israel in this fight," Pompeo said.
The 2015 deal gave Iran relief from crippling sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
Netanyahu has been a leading critic of the agreement,
saying it fails to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capability
and welcoming Trump's pledges to withdraw from the deal if it is not
changed.
Both Trump and Netanyahu say the deal should address
Iranian support for militants across the region and Iran's development
of long-range ballistic missiles, as well as eliminate provisions that
expire over the next decade.
On Monday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the time when Iran's enemies can "hit and run" is over.
"They know if they enter military conflict with Iran,
they will be hit multiple times," he said, according to his website. He
did not specifically refer to the latest attack in Syria.
Trump on Monday also floated the idea of holding his
planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the Demilitarized
Zone that divides the Koreas.
"There's something that I like about it because you are
there, you are actually there," Trump said. "If things work out there's
a great celebration to be had on the site, not in a third-party
country."
A Trump-Kim meeting would be the first U.S.-North
Korean leadership summit in more than six decades of hostility since the
1950-53 Korean War. Trump has previously said that five locations were
being considered, but on Friday said the choice had been narrowed to two
or three.
Monday was the first time he'd publicly specified
potential locations for the meeting, slated for May or early June. He
added that the Southeast Asian city state of Singapore was also in the
running.