United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had "decided" on the Iranian nuclear deal and will let people know about it, a day after he described the agreement as the "worst" and "one-sided transactions" that America has ever entered into.
Trump was responding to a question on whether he had made up his mind to exit the Iranian nuclear deal struck in 2015.
"I have decided," he repeated three times.
Sitting in a bilateral meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestinian Authority, Trump smiled when pressed on what the decision was.
"I'll let you know what the decision is," he said.
Trump on Tuesday described the Iranian nuclear deal as one of the "worst and most one-sided transactions" that the US has ever entered into.
In their brief remarks to the press, Trump and Abbas expressed hope that they would be able to bring a lasting and peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict.
"We are fighting very hard, we are trying very hard. If we can do it, it would be a great great legacy for everybody. So let's see what happens. We're looking seriously at peace and maybe ultimately peace in the whole of the Middle East. I think we have a pretty good shot, maybe the best shot ever," he said.
"The toughest deal of all. I think we have a very, very good chance," he said, adding that all stake holders are working very hard on this.
The Palestinian President said the meeting showed Trump's seriousness to "achieve the deal of the century" during this year or in the coming months.
Abbas said he was very certain that Trump was determined to bring peace in the Middle East.
"This gives us the assurance and the confidence that we are on the verge of real peace" between the Palestinian and the Israelis, he said.
"We can coexist peacefully together," he added.
Trump kicked off his day of diplomacy with a bilateral meeting with the King Abdullah II of Jordan.
"We're working together on many problems, and some things that aren't problems that are very, very good. But we're going to make some of the bad ones turn out good," Trump said.
King Abdullah said terrorism was a scourge around the world.
"But I think Jordan will always stand beside you and your country. And we will overcome," he said as they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.
Trump's comment that he has made a decision on Iranian nuclear deal comes a day after he blasted Iran for its alleged support to terrorists.
"The Iranian government masks a corrupt dictatorship behind the false guise of a democracy. It has turned a wealthy country with a rich history and culture into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos," Trump told world leaders in his maiden address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
"The longest suffering victims of Iran's leaders are, in fact, its own people. Rather than use its resources to improve Iranian lives, its oil profits go to fund Hezbollah and other terrorists that kill innocent Muslims and attack their peaceful Arab and Israeli neighbours," he said.
"This wealth, which rightly belongs to Iran's people, also goes to shore up Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship, fuel Yemen's civil war and undermine peace throughout the entire Middle East. We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilising activities while building dangerous missiles. And we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear programme," Trump said.
The nuclear agreement deal struck in July 2015 between the Obama administration, Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany and the UK requires that Iran severely curb its nuclear activities in return for global sanctions relief.
Under US law, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days of Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal.
Obama had said the deal would make the world safer and more secure. He had said in January of 2016 after the deal was implemented that "Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb".
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
