Trump claims Iran has agreed to no nuclear weapons

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said he had secured guarantees from Iran that it would not develop nuclear weapons, as reports emerged, he had sent a tougher peace proposal back to Tehran.

Any tweaks to the proposal could prolong even further an agreement to formally end the Middle East war and open the Strait of Hormuz maritime route after weeks of efforts to secure a deal despite fractious rhetoric and the occasional flare up of armed conflict.

The New York Times and Axios media outlets reported Saturday that Trump had sent back a new framework to be considered by Iran with “tougher” terms, though it was not immediately clear what that entailed.

Trump has said his priorities for any deal include stopping Iran from any nuclear weapon development and re-opening the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that, and it was very interesting,” he told his daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview broadcast on her Fox News program on Saturday night.

But Tehran has previously cast doubt on Trump’s assertions and the parties appeared far apart on their key priorities.

Iran has said it requires the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before it moved to substantive talks on issues such as its nuclear program and called earlier Trump comments that its enriched uranium — a precursor for nuclear weapons — would be destroyed “baseless”, according to Iranian media.

Tehran has also insisted that Lebanon must be included in any end to the war despite ongoing fighting, with Beirut accusing Israel of a “scorched-earth policy” as its forces advanced and carried out further airstrikes it says target Hezbollah.

After Trump and US officials earlier said they were on the brink of striking a deal, he struck a less urgent tone and hinted at renewed military action in the Fox interview.

“I’m in no hurry,” he said. “Slowly but surely, we’re getting, I think, what we want and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end in a different way.”

Flare ups

That echoed comments from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth who said at a defense summit in Asia on Saturday that Washington was “more than capable” of restarting the war if necessary.

Though daily strikes throughout Iran and the Gulf have stopped since Tehran and Washington struck a temporary ceasefire in April followed by historic talks hosted by Pakistan, bursts of armed conflict have continued.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had shot down a US military drone “about to enter Iranian territorial waters to conduct hostile operations”, Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB reported.

Earlier in the week, the worst fighting since the fragile ceasefire broke out when US forces carried out strikes on the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, countered by retaliatory fire from Iran.

Nevertheless, diplomacy has continued with Trump under pressure to reach an agreement that would lift US and Iranian competing blockades around the Strait of Hormuz that have choked international oil supplies and threatened the global economy with rising prices.

After Trump said on social media that Tehran would charge “no tolls” on ships passing through the strait once the blockades were lifted under any deal, Iranian news agency Fars cited sources saying, “no such clause appears in the text of the agreement.”

Iran’s ISNA news agency on Saturday cited lawmaker Alireza Salimi as saying a plan “to implement Iran’s management and sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz will soon be approved by parliament.”