President Donald Trump has done a good job crushing the Iranian economy, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday, but he doesn't care if the president ever meets with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
"They are trying to build a nuclear weapon and dismember the Middle East," the South Carolina Republican told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "The question is, what will they talk about?"
There is "no good deal" that will allow Iran to enrich and process uranium and plutonium, as that's how to "make a bomb," Graham added.
Trump on Monday said there is a "really good chance" that he and the Iranian leader could meet to discuss their countries' impasse on nuclear materials.
Rouhani had indicated he was ready to negotiate, commenting that if he "knew that going to a meeting and visiting a person would help my country's development and resolve the problems of the people, I would not miss it. Even if the odds of success are not 90% but are 20% or 10%, we must move ahead with it. We should not miss opportunities."
On Tuesday, however, Rouhani pulled back on possible talks with Trump, saying that first, the president must lift the sanctions that have been placed on Iran. If that does not happen, he said, the meeting would be nothing but a photo op.
French President Emmanuel Macron had attempted a surprise intervention between the U.S. and Iran during the weekend's G-7 summit and said he hopes Trump and Rouhani will meet to work on salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal Trump pulled away from last year.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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