‘Without me, there would be no Israel,’ Trump says at G7
Amid extensive controversy and speculation about the contents of a memorandum of understanding with the Iranian regime, which U.S. President Donald Trump announced without providing much detail, the president said on Tuesday that he is likely to hold a press conference and read it “word by word so that the press covers it accurately”.
“We just signed a deal with Iran,” he told reporters at the G7 summit in France during a meeting with United Arab Emirates President Sheik Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“Ships are starting to move now,” he said. “Oil is starting to go up, and prices are coming down rapidly.”
President Donald J. Trump meets with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thank, Amir of Qatar, at the Hotel Royal Evian, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, on the margins of the G7 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Official White House Photo: Daniel Torok)
“Most importantly, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” he claimed.
The president was asked why he might wait until Friday to release the text of the agreement. “I would like to get a formal setting first,” he said. “I will go over the document with the media in a couple of days.”
Trump said that he “never cared about regime change”.
“But I guess you have regime change,” he said, of Iran. “The first group, they are all dead. The second group, they are dead. A part of the third group is gone, and we are dealing with people I think are rational people.”
President Donald J. Trump meets with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, at the Hotel Royal Evian, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, on the margins of the G7 in Evian-les-Bains, France. (Official White House Photo: Daniel Torok)
“I think smarter than the first and second group. They are not radicalised and looking to help their country,” he said. “I have watched regime change for years. They never worked.”
Experts refuted that assertion. “If the current Iranian regime leadership wasn’t radicalised, they would never be in the positions they hold today,” stated Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran.
“These individuals were all tested and trusted by the late Ali Khamenei, promoted by him and have marinated for years in the Islamic Republic’s ideology,” he stated. “There’s literally an Interpol red notice out for the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
At the press conference, Trump was asked about Israel’s ongoing military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump called the terror organisation “that little pinprick out there that constantly rears its head.” He said that he wasn’t pleased with Israel for conducting a strike against Hezbollah a few hours before the agreement was signed.
“If Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else,” Syria would take on the task, he said.
“Without the United States, there would be no Israel,” Trump said. “Without me, there would be no Israel, because no other president was willing to do what I did. I have had a great relationship with Bibi. Now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”
Trump also praised the Emirati President, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for being “early” to enter the Abraham Accords.
“I think they are all going to come in,” Trump said of other Arab states. “The only conflict was a place called Iran.”
The U.S. president said that the United States is “looking to destroy” Iran’s uranium.
“When we get it, we will destroy it,” he said.
Trump said that he should tell Congress not to approve the agreement.
“And I will get it approved,” he said. “Whatever I say, they want to do the opposite.”
During a separate meeting with Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, Trump said that “we have our deal done with Iran, and it should be successful.”
“It goes to a second stage, which I think will be actually easier,” he said.
Despite reporting that hundreds of billions of dollars might be released to Tehran, the president said that the United States will not be investing money in Iran.
“That rumour that got out there yesterday—it was ridiculous,” he said. “We have the right to go in someday and do something, or if somebody wants to do something. But we have no obligation to invest money in Iran.”
Trump said that Qatar would be “investing much more than $1 trillion dollars in the United States” and praised the relationship he has had with Qatar during the recent military operations against Iran.
The original text of the agreement only dictated that Iran could not develop a nuclear weapon, but it was changed so that Iran can’t “buy one either,” Trump told reporters.
By Jessica Russak-Hoffman/JNS
