Trump now sets eyes on Iran, wants a 'real deal'

Singapore: President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would soon like to have a "real deal" with Iran, weeks after he unilaterally pulled the US out of the landmark agreement signed by the Obama administration along with other world powers.

The nuclear deal was negotiated and agreed to by Iran and the P5+1 (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) in 2015, granting Iran sanctions relief and returning frozen assets in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme and international inspections.

Trump last month withdrew from the deal, terming it as the "decaying and rotten" agreement.

Addressing a marathon press conference after his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here, Trump said he hoped relations could also improve, in time, with Iran.

"I hope that, at the appropriate time, after the sanctions kick in and they are brutal what we've put on Iran I hope that they're going to come back and negotiate a real deal because I'd love to be able to do that but right now it's too soon to do that," Trump said.

"On the Iran deal, I think Iran is a different country now than it was three or four months ago. I don't think they're looking so much to the Mediterranean, I don't think they're looking so much at Syria like they were, with total confidence, I don't think they're so confident right now," the US President said.

Iran has said that the 2015 nuclear deal with the US and other key world powers "cannot be renegotiated in any

way".

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran "cannot interact" with the US government because it does not stick to its commitments.

He said Iran could restart the nuclear activities it halted under the agreement if Europe failed to safeguard the agreement after the US pulled out.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has also slammed the Trump administration for unilaterally dumping the deal while he complimented China, Russia and Europe for trying to protect it.

Iran insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, and its compliance with the deal has been verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

North Korean leader Kim on Tuesday agreed to work toward "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" in return for security guarantees from the US as Trump wrapped up his historic summit which he described as "honest, direct and productive."

Trump and Kim conducted a comprehensive, in-depth, and sincere exchange of opinions on the issues related to the establishment of new relations between the two countries and the building of a lasting and robust peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, according to a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim at the end of the summit.

Ever since his election campaign, Trump has frequently criticised the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or (JCPOA).