U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that he is displeased with the progress of talks with Iran intended to address the Islamic Republic’s nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.
Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday afternoon before boarding Marine One for a trip to Texas, the president accused Iran of negotiating in bad faith.
“We’re not exactly happy with the way they negotiated,” Trump said. “They cannot have nuclear weapons, and we’re not thrilled with the way they’re negotiating.”
“It’d be wonderful if they negotiate, really, in good conscience—good faith and conscience—but they are not getting there so far,” Trump added.
Trump has ordered a massive U.S. military buildup in the Middle East during the talks with Iran, the most recent round of which concluded in Geneva on Thursday.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who is mediating the talks, said on Thursday that Iran and the United States had made “significant progress” and that the two sides had exchanged “creative and positive ideas.”
During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Trump accused Iran of continuing to pursue nuclear weapons, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that Iran is seeking to develop ballistic missiles that could reach the continental United States.
The New York Times and other news outlets have cast doubt on those claims, citing a mix of publicly available reports from the U.S. intelligence community, skeptical members of Congress and anonymous administration officials.
A report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency concluded last year that Iran was about a decade away from having an arsenal of ballistic missiles capable of hitting the continental United States, and “American officials who have been briefed on U.S. intelligence assessments” told the Times that Iran has not built any new nuclear sites since U.S. airstrikes on Iran in June.
If the United States were to renew military strikes on Iran, it’s not clear whether the objective of those strikes might include regime change.
Trump denied on Friday that he had been advised that the Iranian government might fall “right away” following military strikes.
“Nobody said that,” Trump told reporters. “Nobody knows that. There might be and there might not be.”
Talks between Iran and the United States are set to resume in Vienna next week.
