(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Hwang Cheol-hwan = Some are raising questions about the deadline of"within the next two weeks" set by US President Donald Trump to decide whether to intervene militarily in Iran.
In the past, there were many cases where they said they would resolve key issues or issues that were difficult to answer immediately within two weeks, but this was not kept.
The New York Times (NYT), a U.S. daily newspaper, pointed out in an article titled “Two Weeks is the Magic Number for Trump” on the 19th (local time) that “almost everyone in Washington now knows that one of President Trump’s favorite units of time is ‘two weeks.’”
He continued,"His tax plan, his health care, the evidence for the conspiracy theories he claims are true, the fight against the Islamic State, opening up coal mines, his infrastructure plan... these were all tough problems he promised to solve in two weeks."
He also pointed out that one such example was when President Trump responded to a reporter's question on April 27 of this year about whether he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding negotiations to end the war in Ukraine by saying,"I'll let you know in about two weeks."
The Times said,"Two weeks for Trump could mean something, or it could mean nothing. It's both yes and no. It simply means 'later.' But that 'later' can often mean something that never comes."
A similar point was made at the White House briefing.
A reporter asked White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt that day,"President Trump has previously used the expression 'about two weeks' in relation to Russia several times, as in 'we anticipate a two-week deadline,'" and asked,"How can we be certain that he (Trump) will meet this (two-week deadline) regarding a decision on Iran?"
However, the New York Times reported that spokesman Levitt dismissed these issues, saying that they were fundamentally incomparable.
Meanwhile, President Trump said in a statement read out by Press Secretary Levitt at a briefing that day,"I will make a decision within the next two weeks on whether or not to attack Iran based on the substantial possibility that there will be negotiations with Iran in the near future that may or may not proceed."
