Trump Warns Iran on Nuclear Weapons, Criticizes Israel's Lebanon Offensive

United States President Donald Trump has warned Iran that “all hell will rain down” if it tries to get a nuclear weapon, and has also rebuked Israel over its military offensive in Lebanon in unusually critical comments during his visit to a G7 summit in France.

The ceasefire deal agreed with Iran would ensure the country “can’t have a nuclear weapon” or “they get blown up,” Trump said on Tuesday before a bilateral meeting with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on the sidelines of the summit in Evian-les-Bains.

“This deal is a wall to a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

“The only thing that really ‌matters to me is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and it says it ⁠loud and clear.”

Trump said he thinks Iran “has rational leadership now”, and the leaders who were “totally irrational” are “now gone”, after US and Israeli attacks killed numerous Iranian officials early in the war.

The memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran is due to be formally signed in Geneva on Friday, after which the two sides will have 60 days to negotiate a final agreement.

Trump said the second phase of negotiations should “be actually easier”.

Trump reacted angrily on Sunday after Israeli attacks on Beirut threatened to derail delicate negotiations with Iran, posting on his Truth Social platform that the attack “should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran”.

In his remarks on Tuesday, he said he had a “great relationship” with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but that the Israeli leader “has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.

Trump said Israel had been fighting Hezbollah “too long and too many people are being killed”.

“You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody because there’s a lot of people in those apartment houses – and they’re not all Hezbollah,” he said.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it.”

Asked whether the US-Iran deal can survive even if Israel launches more attacks in Lebanon, Trump said: “It can.

“I consider that the minor war,” he said. “Iran’s the big one, but we have that little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head and that’s Hezbollah.”