In an interview with NBC Nightly News airing Monday evening, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his government is "virtually certain" Iran is behind the recent Saudi oil attacks and called for a new Iran nuclear deal brokered by President Trump.
What they're saying:
NBC's LESTER HOLT: Are you now 100% lockstep with the United States in the belief that Iran was behind the drone attack in Saudi Arabia?
JOHNSON: We are virtually certain that it was from Iran. I mean, there were, as you know, both UAVs and cruise missiles involved, and we have no other workable hypothesis for how that happened. So that presents the world with a very difficult scenario, a very difficult position: How do we respond?
The big picture: In 2018, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Iran deal negotiated by the Obama administration and 4 other members of the UN Security Council (plus Germany) that required Iran to reduce its nuclear capacities in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
- Johnson's remarks come after the Trump administration blamed Iran for an attack on Saudi oil earlier this month. Trump has not yet publicly stated whether the U.S. will take military action against Iran in response to the attack.
On the Iran deal, Johnson said he wants a new arrangement, stating: "I think there's one guy who can do a better deal ... and that is the president of the United States. I hope there will be a Trump deal."
But, but, but: Johnson did attempt to distance himself from Trump in some respects, saying he finds comparisons of the 2 blond leaders "peculiar," adding: "I come from a tradition that believes in free markets, free trade, all sorts of things that I hope would be shared by the president of the United States."
- The prime minister did note that he considers himself most different from Trump "when it comes to Twitter."
- "I don't do as many tweets as the president does. I'm not a master of that medium," Johnson said.
Go deeper: Trump's anti-Iran strategy is facing its greatest test