Donald Trump is not looking to destabilize the country, Matthew Whitaker has said<\/p>\n
The US does not want a Libya-style collapse in Iran as it weighs possible military action against the country, Washington\u2019s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, has stated.
\nLibya remains divided and unstable more than a decade after a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, leaving rival administrations competing for power.
\nIn recent weeks, Washington has dispatched what US President Donald Trump described as a \u201cbeautiful armada\u201d to the Middle East, led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, to pressure Tehran into accepting a new nuclear deal.
\nWhitaker told Fox News on Saturday that Trump \u201chas been very clear on Iran, and that is that you can\u2019t have a nuclear weapon and you need to stop killing protesters in your streets.\u201d
\nThe US buildup is \u201ca show of strength, but it also is an off ramp for Iran,\u201d which can \u201cdeescalate very easily\u201d by agreeing to Washington\u2019s terms, he added.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Trump refuses to reveal his Iran \u2018plan\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump has given them an ultimatum. Obviously, he does not want to see this spit out of control. We don\u2019t want to destabilize a country like Iran the way Libya was by the [Barack] Obama administration when Gaddafi was taken out and there was no plan for the day after that,\u201d the envoy explained.
\nBecause of this, Washington will \u201cbe judicious in how we use our power\u201d against Iran, Whitaker stressed.
\nTehran maintains that its nuclear program is purely peaceful and that it has no plans to develop a bomb. The Iranian authorities also announced in mid-January that they were able to restore calm after a wave of violent protests, which they claimed had been instigated by the US and Israel with a goal of a regime change.
\nThe head of Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, said that progress was being made toward negotiations with Washington.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Western spies say Iran not making nukes \u2013 NYT<\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also urged dialogue between the sides, warning that \u201cany forceful actions can only create chaos in the region and lead to very dangerous consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donald Trump is not looking to destabilize the country, Matthew Whitaker has said The US does not want a Libya-style collapse in Iran as it weighs possible military action against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t