Trump Says Patience With Iran Is Running Out Over Nuclear Deal

US President Donald Trump has said he will not be much more patient with Iran and urged Tehran to reach an agreement with Washington, as a fragile ceasefire between the two countries remains in place.

“I am not going to be much more patient”, Trump said in an interview aired on Thursday night on Fox News’ Hannity program. “They should make a deal.”

Asked about the need to retrieve enriched uranium from Iran, Trump suggested that the issue was more about public perception than security.

“I do not think it is necessary except from a public relations standpoint”, he said. “I just feel better if I got it, actually.”

Washington has long demanded that Iran move its stockpile of highly enriched uranium abroad and halt domestic enrichment. Tehran denies that it is developing nuclear weapons and says that, as a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment.

Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, said on Tuesday that Iran could enrich uranium to 90% purity, a level considered weapons-grade, in the event of another attack.

The ceasefire between the US and Iran has held for more than five weeks but remains fragile, with neither side appearing close to a deal.

(reuters, bak)