Iran agrees not to stockpile nuclear weapons, says Trump

By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency report

U.S. President Donald Trump said yesterday that Iran has agreed not to develop a nuclear weapon and that the country’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was involved in negotiations with the United States.

Trump made the statements during an interview on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast, as tensions in the Gulf escalated following a series of strikes by the United States and Iran.

His remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified before Congress on Tuesday that there were indications Khamenei was playing a larger role in peace talks, even though the leader has not appeared publicly since the war began on February 28.

U.S. officials have long claimed that Khamenei sustained serious injuries in the bombing that killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the conflict.

Trump also suggested that he might meet Khamenei in the future, saying, “He’s involved. Absolutely. Yeah, I think they have a lot of respect for him.”

When asked about Khamenei’s condition, Trump replied, “I don’t know, I haven’t had the privilege of meeting him.” He added, “If you believe the stories he is, you know, missing a lot of different parts.”

Asked whether he would meet with Khamenei, Trump said, “Yeah, I’d like to meet him. I’d like to meet everybody … We probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works out.”

Regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Trump claimed that Tehran has agreed not to pursue a nuclear weapon, stating, “We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon, and they’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.” He added, “Oh, yeah, they’ve agreed to that. I mean, they can change their mind, but that was one of the things they had to agree. They’ve agreed to that. That was the big thing.”

No immediate comment came from Iran, and the nuclear issue remains a major point of contention in talks between Tehran and Washington.

Marco Rubio told a congressional hearing on Tuesday that Iran had agreed to negotiate aspects of its nuclear program that it had refused to discuss only a month earlier.

Trump also said the United States does not need troops on the ground in Iran, asserting that the war is progressing well without deploying ground forces. “We don’t need boots on the ground now,” he told the New York Post. “We wiped out much of their military with just bombing. We didn’t put anybody in the ground.”

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