Trump rounds out G7 with victory lap speech about tentative Iran deal

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

This year’s G7 summit was “one of the most successful” ever according to President Donald Trump in a speech he gave Wednesday as it wrapped up.

Trump didn’t elaborate on what was accomplished at the summit, the president instead focused on America’s pending deal with Iran – which he simultaneously acknowledged the Islamic Republic might violate while also saying it was much better than former President Barack Obama’s deal with the Mideast nation.

“We’re going to most likely sign a deal,” Trump said.

“The Obama deal was a road to a nuclear weapon, and, let’s call it the Trump deal, was a wall for a nuclear weapon that the nuclear weapon could not get through,” he added moments later.

Though the president spoke of the agreement mostly as a certainty throughout the speech, he also threatened that the U.S. would continue bombing Iran if it violated it or even take actions that aren’t explicitly mentioned in the deal.

“By the way, if they don’t honor the agreement – or some things aren’t even mentioned in the agreement – it’s a memorandum of understanding, but we have an understanding of certain things without writing it – and if they don’t honor that, we’ll probably go back to bombing them until they honor it,” he said. “You know, it’s amazing what bombs can do.”

He said that included within the agreement is a commitment on Iran’s part to “neither produce nor procure” a nuclear weapon and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has said in recent days that the reopening will be toll-free.

Trump was also critical of Israel several times in the speech, though he complimented them as well, for being too aggressive fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iranian spokesperson and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Aragchi said Tuesday that Iran would not sign a deal that did not include conditions requiring Israeli forces to leave Lebanon.

“We have a little dispute over Lebanon,” Trump said, referring to himself and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.”

He later added that though he loves Israel “as a partner,” they could “behave better” at times.

“They were terrific, but they could do a much better job with Hezbollah. I don’t think they’re doing well, and I feel very bad for Lebanon,” he said.