Kamal Ghorui
US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Americans’ financial struggles would not influence his approach to negotiations aimed at ending the Iran war, insisting that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains his main priority.Asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ financial situation was motivating him to pursue a deal, Trump replied, “not even a little bit.”“The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said as he was departing the White House for a trip to Beijing. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me,” he added. Asked to clarify the president’s remarks, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said Donald Trump’s “ultimate responsibility is the safety and security of Americans.”“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if action wasn’t taken, they’d have one, which threatens all Americans,” Cheung said.Trump is facing increasing pressure from fellow Republicans concerned that the economic fallout from the war could trigger a political backlash against the party and jeopardise Republican control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate, in the November elections.Rising energy costs linked to the Iran conflict have driven up gasoline prices and added to inflationary pressures in the United States. Data released Tuesday showed US consumer inflation in April recorded its sharpest increase in three years.Donald Trump has framed his approach to the conflict as a matter of national and global security, signalling that economic concerns are secondary to preventing nuclear proliferation.However, US intelligence assessments indicate that the estimated time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has remained largely unchanged since last summer, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Analysts had previously estimated that joint US-Israeli strikes had extended the timeline to between nine months and a year. The assessments of Tehran’s nuclear programme have reportedly remained broadly consistent even after two months of war.
