With Trump Touring Gulf, Iran Offers Huge Nuclear Concession
Update(1920ET): Trump’s Gulf tour which so far has emphasized deal-making and ‘no more chaos’ in the Middle East, looks to be resonating with Tehran, whose leadership is closely following from just across the Persian Gulf.
In a major breaking report, NBC says that “Iran is ready to sign a nuclear deal with certain conditions with President Donald Trump in exchange for lifting economic sanctions, a top advisor to Iran’s supreme leader told NBC News on Wednesday.”
This is a surprising and huge development given Iran has long said it can no longer trust the Trump administration, given it was Trump who first pulled the US out of Obama’s JCPOA nuclear deal in April 2018.
NBC cites top Iranian official Ali Shamkhani, importantly who serves as military and nuclear advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the following:
He said Iran would commit to never making nuclear weapons, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly-enriched Uranium which can be weaponized, agree to only enrich Uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use, and allow international inspectors to supervise the process, in exchange for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions on Iran.
Asked if Iran would agree to sign an agreement today if those conditions were met, Shamkhani said, “Yes.”
“It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say, for sure we can have better relations,” Shamkhani said. The top official added, “it can lead to a better situation in the near future.”
Again, this is a monumental concession offered by such a high-ranking official deeply involved in nuclear negotiations. The Islamic Republic has consistently cast the enrichment issue as a matter of national sovereignty, but has maintained all along that it does not seek nuclear weapons. Indeed, fatwas going back decades issued by the Ayatallahs have called the nuclear bomb ‘unIslamic’.
Trump has already announced the immediate lifting of sanctions on Syria, whose population has suffered through many years of hellish proxy war and a US-led siege and starvation sanctions policy. Is Iran next? Is Trump in the mood for more quick deal-making and major declarations? He’s on a roll after all. The White House has certainly been busy presenting that the president is stacking up the wins in the Middle East.
Trump while aboard Air Force One and en route to Qatar had earlier called on Iran “to make the right decision” about its nuclear program “because something’s going to happen one way or the other.”
“So we’ll either do it friendly or we’ll do it very unfriendly,” Trump warned. “And that won’t be pleasant.” Tehran seems ready for a major new deal. But it also might have Gaddafi’s fate in the back of its mind (who famously gave up his WMD program… and we know what happened years down the line).
