US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he hopes Washington will maintain friendly relations with Tehran if he returns to the White House.
He made the remarks on Thursday while speaking at a press conference in New Jersey about his plan to restore world peace.
“I’m not looking to be bad to Iran, we’re going to be friendly, I hope … maybe, but maybe not,” Trump said, after accusing Tehran of funding the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “But they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump stressed.
The US withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA) in 2018 during the first term served by Trump, who at the time dubbed the agreement “the worst deal ever.”
The Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action, which in 2015 was signed by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, and the US administration of President Barack Obama, envisaged Tehran scaling down its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international restrictions on it.
Then Washington’s denouncement of the landmark agreement prompted Iran to renege on some of its JCPOA commitments and return to enriching uranium.
Earlier this week, Trump’s campaign team claimed that Iranian cybercriminals have stolen internal US documents, their goal being influencing the 2024 election. A previous cyber-intelligence report by Microsoft had warned that hackers and fake-news sites allegedly linked to Iran could be targeting an unidentified official related to a US presidential campaign.
Trump later posted on his Truth Social platform that he believed Iran was behind the attack, writing “We were just informed by Microsoft Corporation that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government – Never a nice thing to do!”
Iran’s permanent mission to the UN has denied the Trump campaign’s allegations, in a statement to Reuters, writing that “the Iranian government neither possesses [the documents alleged] nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States Presidential election.”