Trump in ‘no hurry’ to sign deal with Iran: ‘There will be no nuclear weapons’
“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons."
United States and Arab officials have been indicating for days that a deal is close to being finalized to end the Iran war. On Friday, President Donald Trump said he met with his top advisors in the Situation room to make a final determination about the deal. NBC’s Daniele Hamamdjian reports for Sunday TODAY.
“The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons."
The European Union is considering a temporary freeze to its price cap on Russian oil as the war in the Middle East continues into a fourth month, said people familiar with the matter.
Europe is rushing to rearm but needs time and clarity from the US to do so, Germany’s Chief of Defense Carsten Breuer said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defense conference.
President Trump asked for several amendments to the deal his envoys reached with their Iranian counterparts during a Situation Room meeting on Friday, according to a senior administration official and a second source briefed on the issue. Why it matters: Trump wants the deal and expects to finalize it soon, but is keen to strengthen several points that are important to him — particularly around Iran's nuclear material, two U.S. officials said. Trump's request has launched another round of back-and-forth between the parties that could last several days.The intrigue: Trump announced on Friday that he'd be convening the Situation Room meeting on the deal, and seemed to suggest he was leaning toward accepting.A White House official told reporters after the meeting that Trump "will only make a deal that is good for America, satisfies his redlines and makes sure Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon."Iranian officials told state media they also had not approved the final text, though two U.S. officials claimed earlier in the week that Tehran was prepared to sign and it was all down to Trump.Behind the scenes: According to the two sources, Trump asked his team to make changes to the draft on clauses regarding Iran's nuclear program.In its current form, the memorandum of understanding includes a commitment from Iran not to pursue a nuclear weapon, but no specific concessions beyond that.It states that there will be a 60-day window to negotiate on nuclear commitments from Iran and sanctions relief from the U.S., with the first issues on the docket being how to dispose of Iran's enriched uranium stockpile and limit further enrichment.Zoom in: Trump wants to try to amend that part. "It's more specifics about how the U.S. gets the material and the timing," a senior administration official said, referring to the enriched uranium.The second source said Trump also wants to amend some of the wording around the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.The U.S. official said Trump was told it would take around three days before the Iranians get back with a response. "They're literally in caves and they're not using email," the senior administration official said. What they're saying: "There will be a deal. The imminence of it, we'll see. We're willing to wait so the president gets what he asks for. It could be a week. It could be less. It could be more. At the turn of the week, we hope to have something," the senior administration official said.Iranian state media has reported that a deal is close but not final, and claimed Iran would receive billions in frozen funds. The White House denies that.The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
His changes to the proposed deal were potentially designed to speed up the process by putting pressure Iran to accept the current framework, one official said.
The self-proclaimed master dealmaker can’t seem to stop sabotaging his own negotiationsFor weeks, Donald Trump has tried to find a way to end the war he started with Iran – a deal that would allow him to declare victory and move past the conflict before it causes severe damage to the global economy and sinks Republican chances in the US midterm elections. But the self-proclaimed master dealmaker can’t seem to stop sabotaging his own negotiations or to acknowledge that Iran is now in a better position to demand concessions than it was before the war.Over the Memorial Day holiday, Trump skipped his eldest son’s wedding in the Bahamas and canceled plans to spend the weekend at his New Jersey golf club. The last-minute changes heightened speculation that Trump was ready to unveil a deal to end the war. Trump then announced that he would hold a cabinet meeting on Wednesday at Camp David, the presidential compound in Maryland that has been the site of historic diplomatic summits and pronouncements. But that meeting was moved back to the White House, as it became clear that Trump had not been able to close a deal he could announce with great fanfare at Camp David. Continue reading...
Performers Young MC, Poison frontman Bret Michaels and country singer Martina McBride raised concerns the event will be political.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is looking into selling some of the large warehouses that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had purchased earlier this year to serve as mega-detention centers for immigrants, according to two Department of Homeland Security officials