Trump says any deal with Iran will be ‘great and meaningful’ – Al Jazeera
An agreement with Iran will be ‘great and meaningful’ or there will be ‘no deal’, US president says.
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United States President Donald Trump says a deal with Iran would either be “meaningful” or there would be “no deal”, days after claiming an agreement with Tehran had been “largely negotiated” to end the nearly three-month war.
“The deal with Iran will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday.
Washington and Tehran have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while mediators push for a negotiated settlement although Iran has continued to block the Strait of Hormuz to most shipping and the US has blockaded Iran’s ports.
Earlier on Monday, Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran and the US “have reached a conclusion on a large portion of the discussion topics” but warned that “this does not mean that the signing of an agreement is imminent.”
Addressing a news conference in Tehran, Baghaei also emphasised that at this stage, Iran and the US have not been “talking about the nuclear issue” and their focus is “on ending the war”, which began on February 28.
He reiterated that there were, however, “no guarantees” that the US would honour its commitments in any potential deal and said Tehran does not care about “threats”.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would either secure a strong agreement with Iran or confront the country “another way”.
“We thought we might have some news last night, maybe today. I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Rubio said on Monday while visiting New Delhi.
“We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the straits, get the straits open,” he told reporters.
On Sunday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the US blockade would “remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed”.
“Both sides must take their time and get it right,” he added.
As diplomacy ramps up, officials from key mediator Pakistan were in China on Monday. Military chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders, Pakistan television showed on Monday.
China has said it would work with Pakistan to “make positive contributions to the early restoration of peace and stability in the Middle East”.
Munir was in Tehran last week with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi as part of mediation efforts to end the war.
As news of a potential deal emerges, a senior Trump administration official outlined what he said were the latest contours of the issues being negotiated.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official told the Reuters news agency that Iran had agreed “in principle” to dispose of its highly enriched uranium and open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its naval blockade.
The US understood that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had endorsed the broad template of the deal, he added.
There was no immediate confirmation from Iran or elaboration on what an “in principle” agreement meant.
The US official said Washington envisioned first reopening the strait and lifting the US naval blockade. Negotiating the details of the nuclear measures would take more time, he said.
The official pushed back on suggestions that Iran had not accepted disposing of its stockpiled enriched uranium. “It’s a question about how,” the official said.
Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the back and forth between the US and Iran means a deal will not likely be agreed anytime soon.
“I think this is kind of par for the course for the Trump administration. One day they walk this way. The next day they walk that way,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Part of the conversations are private. Part of it is public diplomacy, but until we have a concrete sense that the Iranians are likely to say yes to getting rid of their highly enriched uranium … and to opening this Strait of Hormuz with no restrictions, I think one can say that we’re still far away from a lasting deal,” Kupchan said.
While Trump has noted that no deal is imminent, he is demanding Muslim-majority countries across the Middle East and beyond sign up to the Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel as part of an agreement with Iran.
In a lengthy note posted on social media on Monday, the US president asserted that those countries whose leaders he spoke with on Saturday – including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye – should sign up.
“I stated that, after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords,” Trump wrote.
The Abraham Accords normalised ties between Israel and four Arab states: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco when signed in 2020.
While hailed by Washington as a diplomatic breakthrough, the agreements face sustained criticism for sidelining the question of a Palestinian state, and public opposition across the region remains significant.
Trump left some room for exceptions, saying one or two countries with valid reasons would be excused, but warned that any nation unwilling to sign was signalling “bad intention” and would be cut out of the deal.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar should move immediately to sign the accords, Trump said, with all others to follow suit.
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