President Trump said in an interview that aired on Sunday that he wants the “total dismantlement” of Iran’s civilian nuclear program, a condition that’s a non-starter for Tehran.
“Total dismantlement. Yes, that is all I would accept,” Trump said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Trump suggested he might be open to allowing Iran to maintain a civilian nuclear program to produce energy, but sounded skeptical of the idea. “There’s a new theory going out there that Iran would be allowed to have civilian, meaning to make electricity, but I say, they have so much oil, what do they need it for?” he said.
Trump was asked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent suggestion that Iran could maintain a civilian nuclear program. “People are talking about that, and this is something that’s really pretty new in the dialogue … my inclination is to say, ‘what do you need that for? You have a lot of oil,'” he said.
When asked if he would only accept full dismantlement, the president said he would be “open to hearing” about Iran maintaining a civilian nuclear program but added that it could lead to “military.”
Rubio’s idea of an Iranian civilian nuclear program would involve prohibiting Iran’s ability to enrich its own uranium and rely on imported uranium, another condition Iran has said is non-negotiable.
In making his argument, Rubio falsely claimed that there are no non-nuclear armed states with civilian nuclear programs that enrich uranium. But several non-nuclear armed countries that are signatories to the Non-Proliferation Treaty have enrichment programs, including Japan, Brazil, and Germany.
“As a founding signatory to the NPT, Iran has every right to possess the full nuclear fuel cycle,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi wrote on X on Friday. “Moreover, there are several NPT members which enrich uranium while wholly rejecting nuclear weapons.”
Aragchi added that “maximalist positioning and incendiary rhetoric achieve nothing except eroding the chances of success.”
Aragchi’s comments came after Rubio again demanded that Iran “walk away” from uranium enrichment.
Trump’s comments about the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program align with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran hawks in the US. “President Trump is right: Iran’s terrorist regime must dismantle its entire nuclear program,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said on Sunday.
Negotiations between the US and Iran have been faltering as the fourth round of talks that were scheduled to be held on Saturday were postponed. President Trump has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if a deal isn’t reached, even though there’s no evidence Tehran is working to build a nuclear weapon, a fact recently reaffirmed by US intelligence agencies.
