Trump dismissive of European effort to de-escalate Israel-Iran conflict and of Gabbard’s intel

US President Donald Trump is very dismissive of the European effort to de-escalate tensions just hours after the top diplomats of the UK, France, Germany and the European Union met with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi in Geneva.

“They didn’t help. Iran doesn’t want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this,” Trump claims.

Asked about concerns that the US is potentially being dragged into a war under false pretexts, as it did before invading Iraq over 20 years ago. Trump says in the case of Iraq, there were no weapons of mass destruction. This time, however, Iran has amassed a “tremendous amount of material” and was “within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months [from being] able to have a nuclear weapon.”

Earlier this week, Trump put the timeframe at weeks, not months. Israel has claimed that it could have been a matter of days.

Pressed again on Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s March assessment that Iran has not made a decision to build a nuclear weapon, Trump reiterates that “she’s wrong.”

Asked whether he’d allow Iran to have a civilian nuclear program where it is allowed to enrich at low, non-weapons grade levels, Trump says he doesn’t understand why Tehran would need this, given how much oil it has.