President Donald Trump sent back changes to the proposed deal with Iran after a meeting with advisers Friday, officials said, extending the back and forth negotiations into another week.
The exact changes Trump requested weren’t immediately clear, but officials said the president has insisted on tougher language surrounding Iran’s nuclear commitments and its pledge to reopen to Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has also voiced concern at what financial relief might be provided for Iran as part of the deal, wary of comparisons to the “pallets of cash” that were delivered under the Obama-era nuclear deal he derides as weak.
The latest volley of proposed changes comes a week after Trump declared the deal “largely finalized” and signaled the end of the war was imminent.
Since then, US officials have telegraphed progress on reaching an agreement that would end hostilities, reopen the strait and begin more detailed talks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Yet even after Trump announced he would be making a “final determination” during Friday’s meeting, and spelled out some of the deal’s conditions on social media, the two-hour session ended without a conclusive decision.
While Trump claimed in his message that the US would seize Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and destroy it, Iran has consistently said it is not discussing details of its nuclear program under the current negotiations.
Trump also claimed there had been no discussion of exchanging money as part of the deal, a condition Iran says must be included in any agreement.
How those discrepancies are resolved remained unclear as the haggling over the deal’s language ground forward.
Axios and The New York Times reported earlier on Trump’s request for changes.
