Warding off Israeli bombs, Trump says he thinks nuclear deal possible with ‘scared’ Iran

US President Donald Trump says he thinks his administration will reach a deal with Iran on halting its nuclear program, describing Tehran as “scared” and willing to negotiate.

“I think we’re gonna make a deal in Iran,” he says in a Fox News interview conducted a day earlier.

Trump says he prefers Israel not “bomb the hell out of them,” as many think it will do with US help or approval.

“I’d much rather see a deal with Iran where we can do a deal, supervise, check it, inspect it and then blow it up or just make sure there’s no nuclear,” Trump says in the interview, which airs at the same time as the president speaks to reporters in the Oval Office. “I’d much rather do a deal that’s a deal that’s not going to hurt them, and I think they want it too.”

He does not offer specifics on how to improve on the 2015 nuclear pact he pulled out of in 2018, which he says had been “the dumbest deal,” and a “road to a nuclear weapon.”

But he says that the Iran’s air defenses are largely inoperable, leaving them in a more vulnerable state and more willing to come to the table.

“I think they are nervous, I think they are scared,” he says.

Trump also calls Israel’s covert operation to blow up thousands of Hezbollah pagers “a horrible thing,” but allows that it “knocked out a lot of leadership.”