US president insists he’s not in a hurry to sign deal
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
President Donald Trump has toughened the terms of a potential framework for a deal to end the war in Iran, and has sent those proposed changes back to the country for consideration, according to three officials.
However, it was not immediately clear what changes had been made to the text of the agreement, a New York Times report said yesterday.
Trump has been concerned about parts of the potential deal that would include unfreezing funds for the Iranians, two officials said. He has been harshly critical of President Barack Obama for doing the same in the more than decade-old agreement that was signed to curtail Iran’s nuclear programme.
The US president has also been frustrated by how long it has taken for Iran to respond to U.S. proposals, one official said. The proposals have been hammered out with the involvement of intermediaries, including from Pakistan.
The official added that Trump’s changes — a new, tougher proposal — were potentially intended to speed up the process by putting pressure on Iran to accept the framework already sent to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, for approval.
Reaching the supreme leader has been difficult, so any changes to the document, known as the memorandum of understanding, could mean additional delays.
On Friday, Trump met for two hours in the Situation Room with top aides to discuss an end to the war, but left the meeting with no announcement.
The framework would effectively end the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran in exchange for Iran lifting its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for oil and gas shipping. The strait was open for trade before the bombing campaign against Iran, which began on Feb. 28.
Some of the thorniest issues, such as the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, would be deferred to later rounds of talks, the NYT report added.
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Iran have yet to ink an agreement to end the war that has dragged on into its fourth month, with Trump saying at the weekend that he is in “no hurry” to make a deal.
Trump, in an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Fox News, said that he is pressing for a deal that would ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon. And while he said he would prefer that the pact is reached quickly, he is not rushing the process. The president also threatened further military action if negotiations break down.
“I’d like to say I’m in a hurry because gasoline prices are going to come tumbling down, but if you’re going to be in a hurry, you’re not going to make a good deal,” Trump said. “And 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 it a different way.”
“We’re going to make a great deal, [otherwise] we’ll just go back and finish it off militarily,” he said.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators have been working to reach a deal that would end the conflict for weeks, while the war remains in a tenuous ceasefire. The conflict has wreaked havoc on global energy markets and spurred inflation to its highest level since May of 2023 after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz when the war broke out.
Trump has demanded that Iran agree to never obtain a nuclear weapon and immediately reopen the Strait as part of any peace deal.
The president ended a meeting at the White House on Friday without a decision on the deal, after saying he would make a “final determination” during the meeting.
In the Fox interview, Trump also said he had added language to the deal to prohibit Iran from purchasing a nuclear weapon in addition to prohibitions on development, a CNBC report said.
