Trump: US and Iran Close to Nuclear Deal

President Donald Trump said he is confident Iran is serious about signing a deal restricting its ability to build nuclear weapons.

Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military, and nuclear adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told NBC News on Wednesday that Tehran is ready at a moment’s notice to sign a nuclear deal in which Iran would only enrich uranium to lower levels needed for civilian use in exchange for the lifting of all economic sanctions. In Qatar on Thursday morning, Trump alluded to the comments, confirming that a deal is close.

“You probably read today that Iran has sort of agreed to the terms,” he said. “They’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran. And we’ve been strong. I want them to succeed. I want them to end up being a great country, frankly, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon. … And people are getting close to maybe doing a deal.”

Shamkhani said the deal would also include Iran committing to never making nuclear weapons, scrapping its highly enriched uranium with a potential for weaponization, and allowing international inspectors to supervise the process. When the outlet asked if Iran would agree to sign an agreement that day with those conditions, he replied, “Yes.”

“It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say, for sure we can have better relations,” Shamkhani said, adding, “It can lead to a better situation in the near future.”

His comments are the clearest indication yet of a breakthrough after four rounds of talks among senior Iranian officials, led by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and U.S. officials, led by special envoy Steve Witkoff. The latest round of negotiations in Muscat, Oman, was described by Witkoff as “encouraging” and Araghchi as “difficult but useful.”

Trump’s and Khamenei’s insistence on hard-line, occasionally belligerent rhetoric has complicated negotiations. On Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian denounced Trump over his rhetoric on state television.

“He thinks he can come here, chant slogans, and scare us. For us, martyrdom is far sweeter than dying in bed,” he said, according to Reuters. “You came to frighten us? We will not bow to any bully.”

Despite signaling a readiness to sign a deal, Shamkhani expressed frustration with Trump in the Wednesday interview with NBC News.

“He talks about the olive branch, which we have not seen. It’s all barbed wire,” he said.

Opposition from Republicans in Congress could also harm negotiations. On Wednesday, all Republican senators, except Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), signed a letter led by Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) that called on the Trump administration to follow through on its previous “explicit warnings” that Iran “must permanently give up any capacity for enrichment,” according to the Jewish Insider.

The letter appeared to take issue with the deal Witkoff and Shamkhani hinted at.

“You and your administration have therefore correctly drawn a redline against any deal that allows Iran to retain any enrichment capability,” the letter read, referring to previous statements from the administration.

“We cannot afford another agreement that enables Iran to play for time, as the JCPOA did. The Iranian regime should know that the administration has Congressional backing to ensure their ability to enrich uranium is permanently eliminated,” it added.

A nearly identical letter from the House was signed by 177 representatives, or 80% of House Republicans.

Araghchi has said a certain degree of enrichment is nonnegotiable.

“Enrichment is an issue that Iran will not give up, and there is no room for compromise on it,” he said. “However, its dimensions, levels, or amounts might change for a period to allow confidence-building.”

As Trump increasingly leans toward a deal, cracks are forming in his relationship with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu favors military strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, which puts him at odds with Trump.

Reports have swirled that Trump and Netanyahu’s relationship has gone cold, with Trump increasingly sidelining Netanyahu in his Middle Eastern dealings. Most recently, the Trump administration struck a deal with the Houthis to cease its bombing campaign in exchange for safe passage of American ships, and it struck a deal with Hamas to release the last American hostage, without Israel’s input.

Trump’s first Middle Eastern tour in his second presidential term has also excluded Israel.

“I think Israel is a bit alarmed that what they expected from President Trump, which was to be extremely supportive, very cooperative, and even malleable, in favor of some of their preferences, is not the President Trump that they are experiencing,” former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “It’s not that he’s not supportive, but he’s made a number of decisions, or at least forecast other decisions that are clearly at odds with their preferences, and sometimes without any consultation.”

Iran, meanwhile, finds itself in its worst position in decades. Blistering strikes from Israel last year devastated its proxies and allies across the Middle East, including its primary nonstate ally, Hezbollah in Lebanon, which saw its entire leadership killed in Israeli strikes. The sudden collapse of the allied Assad regime in Syria in December removed its foremost ally in the region.

In conjunction with its foreign policy failures is an increasingly dire economic crisis, the longest in Iran’s modern history. Pezeshkian has even said the current economic situation is worse than during the country’s existential war with Iraq in the 1980s.

Analysts have estimated that the economic situation is pushing Tehran to strike a deal with Trump despite its belligerent rhetoric and long-standing distrust.