President Donald Trump changed his hard stance on Iran amid the signing of a peace deal. It is a concession that was unexpected given his own previous demands for complete nuclear disarmament.
Iran may retain peaceful nuclear activity under a final deal
Speaking at the G7 summit in France, Donald Trump adopted a markedly different tone from the one that defined the Iran war before signing the peace deal. Flanked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the president appealed to practical thinking.
“It’s a little hard when other people have it, other adjoining states have it, and you’re not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that,” he said. “You have to use a little common sense” (via The Business Times).
For months, the president and his administration had insisted the Iran war was designed to eliminate any nuclear capability whatsoever. The stated goal was “zero enrichment.” Wednesday’s comments effectively buried that red line.
And it was not just enrichment. Trump backed away from two other firm positions that had underpinned the case for war. The Pentagon had vowed to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile capability. Trump dismissed that goal by saying, “Missiles aren’t the problem. They hurt a little location but they don’t blow up the planet.”
On frozen assets, another central pillar of pressure on Tehran, the president indicated the money would be handed back. “It’s not our money, it’s their money – and we froze it at a certain point in time,” he said. “I guess we’re going to have to give it back.”
The implications are significant. If the memorandum of understanding Donald Trump later signed at the Palace of Versailles translates into a final deal, it will leave Iran with more room than the 2015 agreement that the president himself spent years attacking.
The new framework was drafted largely without Congress being informed of the details. Iran could now reportedly access roughly $300 billion in reconstruction funds while retaining enrichment rights.
