Iran Dumps Cold Water on Trump’s Central Claim on Nuclear Deal

President Donald Trump claimed Friday that Iran had finally agreed to hand over its nuclear stockpile—but Tehran said otherwise. Speaking with CBS News, Trump claimed that Iran had “agreed to everything,” including working with the U.S. to remove the roughly 2,000 kilograms of enriched uranium that remains buried in underground facilities. “Our people, together with the Iranians are going to work together to go get it. And then we’ll take it to the United States,” Trump said. He clarified that by “our people,” he did not mean U.S. troops.Trump claimed that the U.S. and Iran would continue to meet over the weekend to iron out the details, and that the U.S. military blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz would continue “until we get it done.”But sources in Tehran have denied Trump’s claim that any progress has been made. “Contrary to Trump’s claim, no form of nuclear material transfer has been negotiated,” a source close to Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf wrote on X. Another Iranian source called Trump’s claim “another lie.”Trump’s seemingly unsubstantiated claim came shortly after Axios reported that the U.S. was considering releasing $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for the country’s stockpile of enriched uranium—which Trump furiously denied earlier Friday. The two countries were reportedly discussing a three-page plan, and could send negotiators to Pakistan this weekend to try and finalize it. The talks would concern what specifically will happen to the uranium, and how many Iranian assets will be unfrozen.