State Department deputy spokesman Tommy Pigott on Newsmax Tuesday warned Iran that "the alternatives will be very bad" if Tehran "rejects a diplomatic solution" to conflict over the country's nuclear program.
President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the US will hold high-level meetings with Iranian officials this weekend to discuss "a deal" on its nuclear program, adding, "everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious."
When asked on Tuesday if these talks will lead Iran to suspend its nuclear program, Pigott told "Wake Up America," "Look, we'll have to wait and see" what are the results of the negotiations this weekend.
"Ultimately, what we're seeing here is, as President Trump said, we're hoping to have a diplomatic solution to this issue," he continued. "That's what President Trump has been pushing for. But at the same time, we have that maximum pressure policy to drive the revenue of the Iranian regime is getting from their illicit oil sales to zero. So they can't use that revenue to fund their malign activities like their nuclear program, like their terrorist proxies."
Pigott said, "Ultimately, President Trump has been very clear here … we want to have a diplomatic solution to this issue. But if Iran, the Iranian regime, rejects a diplomatic solution, the alternatives will be very bad for Iran."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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