U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran has a 10- to 15-day window to reach a deal with the United States or face potential military consequences.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, Trump described talks between Iran and the United States as going well, but said it’s “not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran.”
“We have to make a meaningful deal,” the president told the assembly of world leaders and foreign ministers. “Otherwise, bad things happen.”
Trump credited the U.S. B-2 bomber strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities in June with helping secure the Gaza peace deal and hinted at the possibility of additional military action against the Islamic Republic.
“We may have to take it a step further, or we may not. Maybe we’re gonna make a deal,” Trump said. “You’re gonna be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”
The United States has ramped up its military presence in the region over the past month, including sending F-35 and F-22 fighters, the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group, and a second carrier group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford that is on the way to the Middle East from the Caribbean. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that it is the largest gathering of air power in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Iran’s foreign ministry claimed on Tuesday that the two sides had reached a “general understanding on a set of guiding principles” for a deal during talks in Geneva, but that “this does not mean that we can reach an agreement quickly.”
Iranian officials have described the talks as focusing exclusively on Iran’s nuclear program and the lifting of sanctions, while U.S. officials, including Trump, have said that a deal should also include Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional proxies.
Speaking to reporters in Georgia later on Thursday, Trump declined to specify what “bad things” might happen to Iran if it does not make a deal with the United States.
“I’m not going to talk to you about that,” Trump said.
“We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or the other,” he added. “10, 15 days, pretty much maximum.”
