Donald Trump has said he wants a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran and denied he wanted to blow Iran to smithereens, describing such reports as “greatly exaggerated”.
But he said it was essential that Iran did not have a nuclear weapon, adding “we should start working on it immediately”. His remarks on his social media site, Truth Social represent the clearest sign that Trump is willing to hold talks with Iran to try to replace the nuclear deal signed in 2015, but from which Trump pulled the US out in 2018.
He said he did not mind whether he rang the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to start the talks or the Iranian leader initiated the process. He also said: “There are many people at the top ranks of Iran that do not want to have a nuclear weapon.” He also predicted “we will have a big celebration in the Middle East the day the deal is signed”.
Trump’s social media posting came after he held talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and also signed a presidential memorandum that instructs the US Treasury and state department to implement a campaign aimed at “driving Iran’s oil exports to zero”.
He also pointedly contradicted a reporter, saying he regarded Iran as strong, remarks that undercut Netanyahu’s claim that the parlous state of Iranian defences make it an opportune time to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites. Netanyahu has long argued with successive US presidents that Iran is bent on covertly building a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s remarks will provoke bitter divisions within Iran about whether an agreement to constrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions will ever lead to a lifting of sanctions.
Pezeshkian responded to the threat of maximum economic sanctions by saying: “With the reserves we have, we can solve the country’s problems. We are a powerful country. Our reserves and resources are exceptional in the world.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, claimed maximum pressure was a failed experiment, and trying it again would lead to another failure.
But he added: “If Trump’s main issue is that Iran does not pursue nuclear weapons, that is achievable and there is no problem.”
Araghchi said: “Iran’s positions are clear, it is a member of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, adding there was a leadership fatwa preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons.
The foreign ministry has been trying to prepare the domestic ground for opening talks with Trump for weeks, but knows there is a large faction opposed to engaging with the US, even if it means economic sanctions weigh the economy down.
Trump portrayed himself as a man that had signed the presidential memorandum against Iran reluctantly, adding he hoped the measures would never need to be used. He said at the signing ceremony: “So this is one that I am torn about. I am signing this, but I am unhappy to do it.” A memorandum has less force in law than an executive order.
Iranian officials argued that the US attempt to weaken Iran’s already heavily sanctioned economy would be hard to achieve since the bulk of Iranian revenue comes through the export of oil to China, often via intermediaries.
The imposition of extra sanctions was seen as a bargaining chip before negotiations on a nuclear deal akin to the imposition of tariffs on other countries.
So far the Iranian foreign ministry has led in the two rounds of talks in Geneva with the three European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal: France, Germany and the UK. Europe has warned that it will move to reapply UN sanctions in September if a new deal is not agreed by then to replace the 2015 deal that expires this year.
Nothing in what Trump said gave any clue as to the kind of assurances the US would need to reach a deal, and to be sure Iran has no intent to build a nuclear bomb. He did not indicate the US would be seeking a wider deal with Iran that seeks to constrain its support for proxy forces in the region.
Iran has slashed the access UN weapons inspectors have to Iran’s nuclear sites. Both the UN inspectorate, the IAEA and the European countries have said it is possible Iran has acquired irreversible knowledge on how to build nuclear weapons.
Ismail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said: “The claim that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons is a big lie that has been proven wrong many times, and if someone is looking for certainty about such an issue, it is easily obtainable.”
He added that unlike Israel “which is not a member of any international treaty banning weapons of mass destruction and explicitly threatened to use nuclear weapons in the war against the people of Gaza, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a member of the non-proliferation treaty and Iran’s nuclear programme is under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency in accordance with safeguards agreements. Basically, the Islamic Republic of Iran considers weapons of mass destruction to be haram [forbidden] for solid Islamic and humanitarian reasons.”
