United States President Donald Trump said he failed to reach a deal with Kim Jong-un during the February Vietnam Summit due to the North Korean leader's reluctance to eliminate all five nuclear sites in the communist country.
In an interview to Fox News on Sunday, Trump said, "When I left Vietnam where we had the summit, I told Chairman Kim that he was not ready for a deal, because he wanted to get rid of one or two sites. He has five sites. What about the other three?"
The second summit between the two leaders was deemed a failure after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement over the scope of denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and Washington's sanction relief.
In the same interview, the US President also brought up the topic of Iran and while reiterating his reluctance to go to war with the country, said that he will never allow Tehran to develop nuclear weapons.
"I will not let Iran have nuclear weapons," said Trump. "I don't want to fight. But you do have situations like Iran, you can't let them have nuclear weapons -- you just can't let that happen."
Also Read
"I am not somebody that wants to go to war. War hurts economies. War kills people more importantly -- by far most importantly," he added
Concerns about a possible conflict between Iran and the US had flared up ever since Washington ordered carrier strike warships and B-52 bombers off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to counter an alleged and unexplained threat from Tehran.
Pentagon said the deployment was in response to "indications of heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations against U.S. forces and interests
Ties between the two countries began to sour last year after Trump-led US government withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying it was "defective at its core".
The said deal, officially titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), was hailed as a major diplomatic victory by the Obama administration.
It was intended to limit Iran's civilian energy programme - thereby preventing it from developing nuclear weapons at some point in the future - in exchange for relief from sanctions that were crippling the country's economy.
Speaking on the same, Trump said, "I ended the Iran nuclear deal, and actually, I had no idea it was going to be as strong as it was."
Iran recently halted some of its commitments under the said deal, which implies that the country will no longer have any limits for the production of enriched uranium.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
