Trump says he has to ‘stop’ killing Iranian leaders to know who US is negotiating with

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that he needs to stop killing Iranian leaders to determine who the US is negotiating with, while reiterating his position that Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

"I gotta stop" killing Iranian leaders, Trump told a campaign rally in Georgia, "because I gotta figure out who the hell we're negotiating with."

"They don't have any airplanes, no ships, no anything, no leaders. Level one leader is gone, level two leader is gone," he said, reiterating his account of the US destruction of Iran's military and leadership.

Trump also defended his 2018 decision to terminate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, reached under then-President Barack Obama, saying it had been done at a critical moment to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"I terminated one of the worst deals ever made, Barack Hussein Obama's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or as some people call it, the Iran nuclear deal, which was a road to a nuclear weapon for Iran. I terminated it, luckily, just in time," he said.

"We obliterated Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity with Operation Midnight Hammer and Operation Epic Fury," he said, referring to military operations in 2025 and then this February to May.

"We defeated them militarily, financially, and otherwise. We have to make sure that they never, ever have a nuclear weapon," Trump added.