The Hill – Trump says Iran deal will be ‘good and proper’ if one is made
President Trump said Sunday that if his administration reaches a deal with Iran, it will be a “good and proper one,” as the two sides reportedly near an agreement to end hostilities.
“If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to the 2015 agreement between the Obama administration, Iran and other global powers — under which Tehran agreed to restrictions on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
“Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet,” the president added. “So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about. Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”
Multiple outlets have reported that Washington and Tehran are nearing a peace agreement, which Trump has sought since the two sides agreed to a ceasefire in early April.
CBS News’s Jennifer Jacobs reported that under the deal, the U.S. would lift a naval blockade on Iranian ports and Iran would agree to dispose of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. A senior administration official also told Jacobs that the U.S. wants Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and refrain from imposing tolls on ships passing through the waterway.
The Iranian military has restricted shipping through the strait since the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on the final day of February. That has rocked the global energy industry, with gas prices in the U.S. rising from less than $3 per gallon in the days before the war to more than $4.50 per gallon as of Sunday, according to AAA.
The first 39 days of the war before the ceasefire also resulted in the deaths of 1,701 civilians in Iran, including at least 254 children, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
The Fars news agency, which is closely aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, also reported Sunday that the agreement would allow Iran to manage the Strait of Hormuz.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Sunday criticized the reported terms of the deal.
“There are a lot of things that need to be explained. And, as I have said before, any agreement with Iran that isn’t subject to ratification, ratification by Congress … I think [is] going to be doomed to fail,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told host Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
But libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote on social media Sunday that those critical of the president should give him “the space to find an American First solution” to the conflict.
“War virtually always ends with negotiations,” said Paul, who has voted in favor of Senate resolutions requiring Trump to seek approval from Congress for the war.