Trump rebukes Israel, says he does not want regime change in Iran

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he does not want to see “regime change” in Iran, which he said would lead to chaos.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to a NATO summit, Trump said Iran is not going to have a nuclear weapon and that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called him and offered to help with Iran.

Read more: China can continue to buy Iranian oil: Trump

“If there was, there was, but no I don’t want it. I’d like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible,” Trump said. “Regime change takes chaos, and ideally we don’t want to see so much chaos.”

Meanwhile, trade is also in Trump’s mind even in the case of Iran, which has been facing severe US sanctions for decades.

He also said that “the last thing on Iran’s mind right now is nuclear weapons” and added Iran “won’t have enrichment” and will become “a great trading nation”.

NOT HAPPY WITH ISRAEL

Earlier, Trump sharply rebuked Israel for its military response following a ceasefire deal and accused both Israel and Iran of violating the agreement just hours after he announced it.

“I didn’t like the fact that Israel unloaded right after we made the deal. They didn’t have to unload and I didn’t like the fact that the retaliation was very strong,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had said he had ordered the military to mount new strikes on targets in Tehran in response to what he said were Iranian missiles fired in a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire.

Iran denied launching any missiles and said Israel’s attacks had continued for an hour and a half beyond the time the ceasefire was meant to start.

Trump had announced the ceasefire earlier on Tuesday with a post on Truth Social: “THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!”

Later in the day, Trump told reporters Israel launched its strikes almost immediately after the agreement was reached.

“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. The biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel,” he said.

Iran and Israel, he added, had been fighting “so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing,” he said before turning away from cameras and heading to his helicopter.