President Donald Trump said the US would hold a meeting with Iran next week but cast doubt on the need for a diplomatic agreement on the country’s nuclear program, citing the damage that American bombing had done to key sites.
“We’re going to talk to them next week,” Trump said Wednesday at a press conference during the NATO summit at The Hague, without giving more details on the timing. “We may sign an agreement. I don’t know, to me, I don’t think it’s that necessary.”
He reiterated that US strikes on the Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow facilities had “obliterated” them, again disputing an early American intelligence assessment that said Tehran’s nuclear program had only been set back by a matter of months.
The comments came on day two of a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, ending 12 days of conflict that threatened to escalate into a wider regional war and upend energy markets. As the missiles fell silent and oil prices plunged – wiping out most of their increase during the hostilities – focus has switched to a possible next stage of nuclear diplomacy.
Trump said the conflict was effectively “over” after the US bombing mission. Though, he also warned: “Can it start again? I guess someday it can. It could maybe start soon.”
Iran has been sending signals that it’s ready to resume talks, which were underway with the US before Israel attacked. “The logic of war has failed – return to the logic of diplomacy,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said Wednesday. The mission didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s hint at new talks.
Before Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran, Trump envoy Steve Witkoff had taken the lead in five rounds of talks with the Islamic Republic and its foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, seeking a deal to replace the 2015 nuclear agreement that Trump abandoned during his first term.
The negotiations aimed to curb Iran’s nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief. A key sticking point was over uranium enrichment. Iran says it must be allowed to continue, at least to the low level needed for civilian purposes such as fueling atomic power plans. The US says it can’t enrich at all.
‘They’re Ready’
“We’re hopeful for a comprehensive peace agreement,” Witkoff said Wednesday on CNBC when asked what the next steps are for diplomacy with Iran. “We were hopeful when we first started negotiations. It didn’t quite work out that way, but today, we are hopeful. The signs are there.”
Witkoff said the US has been “having conversations with the Iranians” and that “multiple interlocutors are reaching out to us,” adding that his “strong sense” is that “they’re ready.”
“For Iran, a diplomatic track makes as much sense today as it did before the attack,” said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. “It seems that the Iranian program was not fully disabled. This may tempt Israel or the US to conduct additional strikes. A diplomatic process will obviate that possibility.”
It’s not clear what that would entail. The UN’s nuclear watchdog has for decades been central to monitoring of Iranian nuclear activities. But Tehran is in no hurry to resume working with the agency, which it blames for failing to condemn the US and Israeli attacks.
The US strikes on Iran on Sunday morning mean the negotiations between the two sides are likely to be fraught, according to Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former Iranian ambassador to Germany.
“President Trump invited Iran to negotiate,” Mousavian, who was also involved in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past, said to Bloomberg Television on Thursday. “Araghchi and Witkoff in the first three rounds agreed on the principles. They were on the verge of finalization of the agreement. Suddenly, Israel and the US attacked Iran. The negotiations will be extremely difficult.”
Iran’s parliament has approved legislation that would suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency until nuclear sites are secured, though any ultimate decision will be taken at higher levels of the state.
The IAEA said Tuesday that inspections in Iran should resume “as soon as possible” to determine what’s happened to stocks of uranium enriched to 60 percent levels, not far short of the 90 percent required to build a bomb. The IAEA says it last verified those inventories a few days before Israel’s June 13 attack and their whereabouts is now unknown, suggesting they may have been moved preemptively from sites targeted by US bombs.
Trump said the US bunker-buster strikes had eliminated some key risks by burying the country’s atomic materials under “granite, concrete and steel.”
“We think everything nuclear is down there,” he said. “They didn’t take it out.” Pressed about the sources for such findings, he cited new intelligence assessments and also said “we’ve also spoken to people who’ve seen the site,” without identifying them.
The White House declined to specify to whom Trump was referring.
Iran’s nuclear installations were “badly damaged” by US airstrikes, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told Al Jazeera TV on Wednesday, in the first such comments from Tehran. The official didn’t give further details and said authorities were still reviewing the situation on the ground.
Trump cited that assessment during his NATO press conference, as well as a statement by Israel’s nuclear agency that said the Fordow site had been rendered inoperable and Tehran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon set back by “many years.”
‘Weeks Away’
Earlier this month, Trump had said Iran was “weeks away” from having an atomic weapon, though some experts and US intelligence estimates said it could take months or years for the nation to develop a weapon. Iran maintains that its nuclear program has purely civilian purposes, and that it’s entitled to pursue that goal under international law.
Witkoff said that “enrichment is the red line” for the US with Iran, “and beyond enrichment, weaponization is the red line.”
Israel’s attacks on Iranian military and nuclear sites killed several top generals and atomic scientists. Iran countered by firing drones and ballistic missiles into Israel. Both have declared victory.
The death toll from the Israeli airstrikes climbed to 627 and more than 4,800 people have been wounded, according to Iranian state media reports. At least 28 people have been killed in Israel in Iranian missile attacks, emergency services officials said, including four on Tuesday morning just as the truce was to take effect.
Oil has slid back to around the levels it was trading at before the fighting began, posting a decline of some 13 percent in the first two days of the week. It has rebounded slightly since then as Trump played down the prospect of near-term sanctions relief for Iran.
Asked if his Tuesday comments approving Chinese purchases of Iranian oil undermined his strategy of maximum pressure on Iran, Trump said he is “not giving up” on it. But he also indicated US financial penalties are doing little to stop Beijing from buying Tehran’s supplies.
“If they’re going to sell oil, they’re going to sell oil,” Trump said. “China is going to want to buy oil. They can buy it from us. They can buy it from other people.”
Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron told Bloomberg that the military campaign cost the government about 1 percent of gross domestic product, or roughly $6 billion, and would require revisions to this year’s budget. He said gains on the country’s financial markets suggest that they see the conflict resulting in “a positive outcome for Israel.”
The shekel is the world’s best-performing currency this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and is up about 2.5 percent against the dollar.
Iran’s civil aviation authority said 13 airports in the country’s eastern regions have reopened for flights, though Tehran’s airports remain closed until further notice, according to state media.
Trump said both nations are “tired, exhausted.”
“They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very violently, and they were both satisfied to go home and get out,” he said.