Iran is terrified after losing almost all its air defenses and now would love to make a deal with the United States, Donald Trump said on Monday, adding that he would also prefer a deal with Tehran to an Israeli attack on their nuclear sites.
"Iran is very concerned. Iran is very frightened, to be honest with you, because their defense is pretty much gone," Trump told Fox News.
He was apparently referring to Israel's October attacks on Iran which, according to US officials, knocked out the country's last three Russian-provided S-300 air defense missile systems.
"Maybe they are trying to get new defense as we speak but their defense is largely gone... Iran is very nervous. I think they're scared. I think Iran would love to make a deal and I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them," Trump added.
Israeli officials have repeatedly raised the possibility of military action against Iran’s nuclear program, but Trump has insisted that he hopes a deal over Iran's nuclear program would make it so that the United States did not have to support an Israeli attack on Iran.
"Everybody thinks Israel with our help or our approval will go in and bomb the hell out of them," Trump said Monday, stressing that Israel would need the US support for such a strike.
"I would prefer that not happen. I'd much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal, supervise, check it, inspect it."
Earlier he had said that any reports the United States and Israel would work together on a devastating military attack on Iran were overblown.
"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens,” ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED," Trump said on February 5.
'Iran is very militant'
Trump has long opposed foreign wars but has adopted a hard line on Iran, beefing up sanctions on its oil exports in his first term and pulling out of an international deal on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"That was the dumbest" deal, Trump said. "And by the way, that would have expired by now. That was a road to a nuclear weapon. It was a short-term deal. You can't make a deal with just a few years on it."
Trump was referring to the so-called sunset clauses of the 2015 nuclear deal which, according to him, would enable Iran to pursue nuclear weapons in the future.
"They would have a legal right to have a nuclear weapon. You cannot allow Iran or just about anybody else by the way but especially Iran because they are very, very militant. You can't allow them to have a nuclear weapon," he told Fox News.
Trump said there are two ways to stop Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon: "With bombs or with a written piece of paper. And I'd much rather do a deal that's not going to hurt them. And I think they want it too."
Iran has denied seeking a nuclear weapon, but Israel has long contended that a bomb in the hands of its arch-enemy poses an existential threat.
