“At the appropriate time, when all is calm, we will go in and get the Nuclear Dust, buried deep under the powerful sunken granite mountains, thanks to our beautiful B-2 Bombers and their brilliant pilots, and downblend and destroy it, whether in Iran, or the United States,” said President Donald Trump in a Saturday Truth Social post.
Trump has been teasing a potential peace deal with Iran this week ahead of the UFC fights planned on the White House lawn for his birthday this Sunday. Since the U.S. joined Israel to attack Iran in late February, the conflict has dragged on, leading to deaths in the war zone and global complications such as spiking gas prices due to a blockade at the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route for oil.
As those prices at the pump rise in the U.S., Trump’s approval rating has slipped and he’s reportedly been in conflict with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He announced earlier this week that he was calling off strikes on Iran and that a peace deal that would prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon was imminent.
Bruce Jentleson – a professor of public policy and political science at Duke University who has previously worked in the State Department and on Middle East peace processes – told Audacy last May that Iran had moved closer to developing one of these devastating weapons over the previous decade. He said they had stockpiled supplies of uranium for nuclear energy. At the time, Iran had enough supplies to make a weapon within two years, Jentleson said.
In his Saturday message, Trump criticized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal brokered between the U.S., China and Russia during former President Barack Obama’s tenure. He said it paved an “easy, beautiful, smooth road to a Nuclear Weapon, which Iran would have had six years ago, and would have used long before now,” and said it gave Iran access to $1.7 billion in “green, cold cash.”
Trump has slammed the JCPOA in the past and he pulled the U.S. out of the agreement back during his first term in office in 2018. Jenlteson said the JCPOA wasn’t perfect but that it was working fairly well.
“My Agreement with Iran is the exact opposite, A WALL TO NO NUCLEAR WEAPON! In fact, they no longer want a Nuclear Weapon, nor will they have one, either through purchase, development, or any other form of procurement,” Trump said Saturday. He added that the deal is “scheduled to get signed tomorrow, and immediately after it is signed, the Hormuz Strait is OPEN TO ALL.”
According to CNN, “Tehran has also signaled an agreement is close,” as of Saturday, though it also noted that Iran’s “elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards denied a signing is set for tomorrow.”
CNN’s report said that officials are planning for a virtual signing of the agreement due to logistical challenges associated with meeting in person. Then, a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran would kick off a new 60-day period of negotiations on how to implement the framework, said the outlet, citing a U.S. official.
“Iranian descriptions of the terms have differed from some details released by the US, including on key issues such as the future of Tehran’s nuclear program and frozen Iranian funds,” CNN added.
Despite the months-long war, Trump said Saturday that “our relationship with Iran is a much different and better one than previous Administrations have had,” and said that “no money will exchange hands,” in the potential deal.
“We look forward to working with Iran, and the entire Middle East, long into the future. Hopefully, this process will all work out quickly, easily, and smoothly,” the president said. “If it doesn’t, we have the ultimate alternative, hopefully never to be used again!”
