Foreign Affairs

Trump Moves On To Iran: Says He Wants A ‘Real Deal’

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Just a few hours after his historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump has his eyes on making a new deal with Iran.

“I hope that, at the appropriate time, after the sanctions kick in — and they are brutal what we’ve put on Iran — I hope that they’re going to come back and negotiate a real deal because I’d love to be able to do that,” Trump said, speaking to reporters in Singapore on Tuesday.

Trump pulled out of the controversial Iran Deal, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on May 8, calling it “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

Trump has long despised the nuclear deal created in 2015 for its failure to ban Iran from creating nuclear programs as well as failing to address Iran’s behavior across the Middle East.

Trump signed a memorandum to reimpose significant economic sanctions on the nation immediately after pulling out of the deal.

“I did it because nuclear is always number one to me; nuclear is always number one,” he said at the conference.

Shortly after Trump and Kim’s agreement was announced, Iranian government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht warned North Korea not to trust Trump, saying he could cancel the agreement within hours.

“We don’t know what type of person the North Korean leader is negotiating with. It is not clear that he would not cancel the agreement before returning home,” Nobakht said, according to IRNA News Agency.

Aside from the sanctions that were reinstated after ending the Iran Deal in May, the U.S. plans to place more after the 90-day interval on Aug. 6 on services related to Iran buying or acquiring U.S. dollars, trading gold and other precious metals, as well as auto sanctions. At the end of the 180-day interval on Nov. 4, another set of sanctions will hit Iran.

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