UNGA73: Trump Says New Sanctions Will Force Iran Back To Nuclear Talks

U.S. President Donald Trump said “Iran has to come back and they have to talk” if it wants to avoid a new round of economic sanctions.

Speaking to reporters in New York Wednesday, the president defended his decision to withdraw from the 2015 six-nation agreement for Tehran to give up its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of crippling economic sanctions.

“Here’s the thing: they have rampant inflation,” Trump said. “They have rampant inflation, their money is worthless. Everything is going wrong.

“At some point I think they are going to want to come back and say can we do something. Very simple, I just don’t want them to have nuclear weapons,” he added.

Taking the gavel of the United Nations Security Council earlier in the day, Trump used most of his remarks on the theme of nuclear nonproliferation to criticize Iran, labeling the government the “world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.”

He claimed that “Iran’s aggression only increased” after the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Agreement (JCPOA) was signed. The Trump administration withdrew from the deal earlier this year.

Trump repeated his frequent assertion that the JCPOA, which was signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama, was a “horrible, one-sided” deal benefiting Iran.

“They needed cash,” Trump said. “We gave it to them.”

Trump added that Iran, “a regime with this track record, must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon,” and warned that Washington will pursue even tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Speaking immediately after Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron said there needs to be a long-term strategy to manage the Iran issue and it cannot be done with just sanctions and containment.

Macron added that all countries share the same objective of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.