Trump cabinet looks forward to progress on Iran deal in 'coming hours, days'

WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump told his cabinet and the media during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that his administration is “not satisfied” with the terms of a deal with Iran yet, “but we will be”. The session, which is open to reporters, is one of the administration’s most closely watched meetings in recent weeks. The president and his cabinet members touched upon a number of domestic and international issues of interest, as well as discussing the ongoing negotiations with Iran. “They just want to make a deal. I dont think they have a choice,” Trump said, referring to Tehran. “Their economy is in free fall, their money has no value, their whole economic system has broken down,” he said. “They thought they were gonna outwait me, like, ‘He’s got a midterm’. I dont care about the midterm.” he said. “It’s very simple, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I am doing this for the whole world not for the US only,” he said. “We’ve had great support from other nations. We need it all.” Some progress made: Rubio US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while briefing the meeting said Washington’s first option is diplomacy. “We’ve continued to work on that. We want an agreement to be made. There has been some progress.” “We’ll see over the next few hours or days if progress can be made. Mr President, you have other options as well if that doesnt work,” he added. “We are negotiating and you are giving it every chance to succeed,” Rubio said, addressing the president. Could go back to finish the job: Hegseth US War Secretary Pete Hegseth told the meeting that shipments had not been able to leave or arrive at Iranian ports. “We can tell from our intel that their economy is hurting big time.” He said the US could either “bring them to the table either through the efforts of negotiators” or “go back to finish the job”. “Americans are excited about what you’re bringing to the defence industrial base,” he claimed. “Defence manu...

Original source: Dawn Pakistan