President Trump said on Thursday that the US and Iran were close to reaching a nuclear deal, though the details of a potential agreement remain unclear.
The president said that the US wouldn’t be “making any nuclear dust in Iran,” referencing his previous threats that he would bomb Iran if an agreement weren’t reached. “I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this,” he said.
Trump told reporters, “You probably read today the story about Iran. It’s sort of agreed to the terms.”
The president didn’t specify what story he was referring to, but NBC News published an interview on Wednesday with Ali Shamkhani, an advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
In the interview, Shamkhani said Iran was ready to commit to never making a nuclear weapon, reduce uranium enrichment levels, get rid of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and allow international inspectors to verify the process in exchange for sanctions relief.
Shamkhani’s comments reflect what has been Iran’s position all along and mirror the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA. Trump posted a link to the interview on his Truth Social account, suggesting he may be open to such a deal.
Publicly, Trump administration officials, including Steve Witkoff, have been saying that any deal must eliminate Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, which Iranian officials have made clear is a non-starter. It’s likely this has not been the US demand in its negotiations with Iran since the talks have continued to make progress.
Trump’s comments come after Axios reported that Witkoff presented Iran with a proposal for a potential deal during the previous round of negotiations, which was held over the weekend in Oman.
The report said that Witkoff’s proposal included the Trump administration’s parameters for an Iranian civilian nuclear program and requirements for monitoring and verification, but it didn’t say what those parameters were.
President Trump has been threatening to attack Iran if a nuclear deal isn’t reached even though his intelligence agencies recently reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Tehran is building a bomb or that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reversed his ban on the development of nuclear weapons.
