White House says sanctions are hurting Iran, pressuring Tehran to make a deal

The White House on Tuesday said the administration’s aggressive stance against Iran has crippled its global terror funding ahead of U.S. talks Saturday with the Islamic regime’s leaders.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran will be boxed in when they enter the talks.

“The president has reimposed crippling sanctions on the Iranian regime, and he’s made it very clear to Iran they have a choice to make. You can strike a deal with the president. You can negotiate, or there will be hell to pay,” she said at the daily press briefing.

“As the president said yesterday, if they don’t choose to move forward with diplomacy and a deal, which is the direction we do see them headed in, there will be grave consequences today.”

Mr. Trump announced Monday that the U.S. and Iran would begin direct talks about Tehran’s nuclear program, calling it a “very big meeting.”

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, maybe you’re going through surrogates, or you’re not dealing directly. You’re dealing through other countries.’ No, we’re dealing with them directly,” he said while sitting beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office.

Mr. Trump said the talks cannot fail because Iran would be in “great danger” and “can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran has vowed that “Israel must be wiped off the map.”

Iran had refused Mr. Trump’s demands that it directly negotiate over its nuclear program or be bombed. It initially wanted indirect discussions.

Mr. Trump said, “Maybe a deal is going to be made. That would be great. It would be really great for Iran. I can tell you that.”

The president had said he would favor reaching an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program to a military conflict. He wrote to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on March 7 to suggest talks.

Iranian officials said at the time that Tehran would not be forced into negotiations.

If the talks with Iran are unsuccessful, Mr. Trump said, it will be a “very bad day for Iran.”

“I think Iran is going to be in great danger,” he said. “Because they can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Can’t have it.”

During his first term, Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 agreement between Iran and other world powers that placed limits on Iran’s nuclear engagements in exchange for lifting sanctions. However, Mr. Trump reimposed these sanctions at the start of his first term in office. He said it was a bad deal that wouldn’t stop Iran from working on a nuclear weapon.