Trump: I hope we don't have to use the order against the Islamic Republic too much

On Tuesday, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, signed an executive order against the Islamic Republic ahead of a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, which will enforce the sanctions he had previously imposed on Tehran during his first term in office. While signing the order in his office, he stated: 'Signing this order is something I am conflicted about. Everyone wants me to sign it. I will do it. It is very hard for (the government of) Iran. These are the same sanctions we had before.' Trump added: 'If I had been re-elected four years ago, we would never have had this problem. You never had October 7. If the elections had gone as they should have, we would have had no issues. But my signing today is more of a compensatory measure. Iran is in a historical situation, but I hope we won't have to use the content of this order too much. We will see if we can arrange an agreement with Iran that everyone can live together, or not. Maybe it is possible, and maybe it is not.' The U.S. President further clarified: 'So I am signing this, and I am not happy about it, but I really have no choice because we have to be strong and firm, and I hope we don't need to use it on a large scale.' Donald Trump said: 'If we can have a Middle East and maybe a world in complete peace, that would be great. Right now, you don’t have that. When I left the White House, there was peace everywhere in the world. And now the world is exploding.' He referred to his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, saying: 'As you know, Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) is coming to see me at the White House in a few hours, and others as well. We will see what we can do. But I am signing this, and I hope it is a document that is not very important and is rarely used.' The U.S. President discussed his desired agreement, stating: 'We will see, meaning we want to see that they should not have nuclear weapons. With an agreement, it is very simple. (The Islamic Republic) Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. We do not want to be tough on Iran. We do not want to be tough on anyone, but they cannot have nuclear weapons.' Trump responded to a reporter's question about whether he is ready to talk to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, saying: 'I am ready to talk to my counterpart in Iran.' He continued, in response to another question about Iran's attempts to assassinate him, saying: 'They have not done that, and it would have terrible consequences for them, not just because of me. If they did that, they would be wiped out. That would be the end of them. I have set the guidelines that if they do that, they will be wiped out, nothing will remain of them, and they should not be able to do that.' The U.S. President continued: 'I would like to have good relations with everyone, but they cannot have nuclear weapons. That was the only thing that was very important. They cannot have nuclear weapons.' He added that Tehran is very close to obtaining nuclear weapons, but did not respond to another question about whether he would allow Israel to carry out a military attack on Iran or even collaborate with them in targeting nuclear sites.