Trump: ‘Would be nice’ to solve problems with Iran without Israeli strikes

US President Donald Trump says he hopes the Iranian nuclear crisis can be solved without Israel having to carry out a military strike against Tehran.

Trump is asked by reporters whether he’d support such a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities after he signs a series of executive orders in the Oval Office.

“I’m not going to answer that,” he first replies, adding that he’ll be holding meetings with various senior officials on the matter shortly.

“Hopefully that can be worked out without having to worry about it. It would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step,” Trump adds.

“Iran will hopefully make a deal, and if they don’t make a deal that’s okay too,” he says.

His administration has signaled in recent days that it wants to try and reach a diplomatic agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear program, rather than carrying out a military strike.

There had been some in Israel who assumed that Trump’s return to the White House would lead to the US backing an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites or even carrying out such an attack itself.

Trump had criticized Biden for publicly telling Israel not to strike Iranian oil and nuclear sites in retaliation for Tehran’s ballistic missile attack last year. Trump had argued that Biden shouldn’t be publicly telegraphing Israel’s next move.