President Donald Trump, who hunted Iran in his first major speech at Saudi Arabia, warned that Tehran must choose to never possess nuclear weapons or deal with his anger.
"If Iranian leaders reject olive branches and continue to attack neighbors, we have no choice but to create huge maximum pressure," Trump said in a speech to the business leaders in Riyadh.
He added: “The choice was made by them.”
President Donald Trump speaks at the Saudi-US Investment Forum held at the Abdul Aziz International Conference Centre in Riyadh on May 13, 2025. (Fayez Nureldine/AFP via Getty Images)
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Although Trump said he wanted to reach a deal with Iran and saw Tehran boom, his comments were made in his first pursuit of the Iranian regime and accused the regime of not only deteriorating its country, but throughout the region.
"Iran's leaders are committed to stealing people's wealth to finance terror and bloody foreign countries. The most tragic thing is that they have delayed the entire region with them," Trump said.
The president noted that Iran's efforts to support Syria's former Bashar Assad regime, which collapsed in December and accused its support for Hezbollah as the fall of Beirut, which he said was "a time known as the Paris of the Middle East."
"You can imagine all this pain, and more, it's completely avoidable, absolutely avoidable," Trump said.
President Donald J. Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman were held at the Saudi Crown Court on May 13, 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Trump asserted that the Biden administration lifted some sanctions on Tehran, the main way for Iran to fund terrorist groups, including Hamas, which he believes led to the deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Fox News Digital contacted President Joe Biden with a spokesperson for comment on Trump's claims.
"If only the Iranian regime is focused on building its own country rather than demolishing the region," Trump continued. "But today I am here not only to condemn the chaos of the Iranian leaders in the past, but also to provide them with a new and better path towards a better, more promising future.
"I never believed in having a permanent enemy as far as Iran is concerned," he said. "The enemy gives you motivation.
The U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff, shook hands with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi in Muscat, Oman on April 12, 2025. (Oman News Agency/through Reuters Handout)
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"In fact, some of the closest friends of the United States of America are countries that have fought wars for generations," Trump pointed out.
It is unclear how Trump’s negative comments on Tehran affect ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.
The Iranian representative on the UN mission in New York did not immediately respond to the question of Fox News figures.