CNN
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President Donald Trump believes his administration is “very close to a solution” to Iran’s nuclear deal, and he said he personally warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to disrupt the meeting.
Trump warned his close allies last week that the move to support the negotiations was “inappropriate,” he told reporters.
A source familiar with the debate, reflecting Trump’s optimism, told CNN that he was trapped in a wide range of agreements that could close when the US and Iran meet next in the Middle East.
However, concerns about Israel’s derailment of the process are clearly high. Trump asked about reports that he had disrupted the meeting in a phone call last week and warned Netanyahu. He added: “That’s not a warning. I said I don’t think it was appropriate.”
Trump said his team is having a “very good argument” with Iran. Guided by Middle Eastern Steve Witkov, meetings have been held over the past few weeks, hosted by Oman.
“Now they want to trade, and if we can trade, I’d save a lot of lives,” Trump said.
Trump’s candid entry on Netanyahu’s call follows a CNN report last week that the US received a new intelligence report indicating that Israel is preparing to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Netanyahu has long been a solid opponent of all sorts of contracts with Tehran, celebrating Trump’s decision in the first US term to withdraw the nuclear deal agreed to by President Barack Obama in 2015.
The interests are very high. The Israeli strike could undo the progress the US has made, sparking wider regional conflicts and undermining the possibility of Trump achieving a major foreign policy breakthrough as progress in the ceasefire in the war between Ukraine and Gaza is stagnating.
Trump’s comments came after a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry expressed openness to compromise and told CNN on Monday there were “a lot of ways” agreements on the future of the nuclear program.
Still, the question of whether Iran is allowed to enrich uranium remains a key point. Trump himself admitted Iran “must agree to the final stages of the document.”
The fifth round meeting in Rome on Friday addressed the issue of enrichment more heavily.
“Everyone feels good,” Trump administration officials said following talks in Rome. “We understand everyone’s position much better.”
The Trump administration had called for Iran to stop enriching all uranium, but Witkov said it would “enable weaponization,” and called the red line at the meeting. Uranium, a critical nuclear fuel, can be used to build nuclear bombs when enriched to high levels. Iran has been working on its nuclear program in recent years, and claims that it is peaceful. Iran is willing to be willing to commit to not enriching uranium into arms grade as part of the agreement, but said it would reject a complete ban on all enrichment.
He said he wanted a “very strong document,” Trump said on Wednesday that the current talks appear to include discussions on increasing testing within Iran and at least some of the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program.
“We want to be very strong in a place where we can go with the inspectors, we can bring anything we want.
Trump administration officials, including Witkov, have publicly said the US red line is enriched for Iran. But Trump’s comments on Wednesday showed he may be open to allowing limited enrichment with inspectors as a solution to his impasse.
Previously, US officials had the idea that Iran would import rich uranium rather than do so in the country. This is the concept of Iran repeatedly rejecting it.
The current debate could be that the US invested in Iran’s nuclear program and launched a consortium. This is expected to include the UN nuclear watchdog, the Middle East and UN nuclear watchdogs that produce rich uranium for Iranian nuclear reactors.
However, there has been no agreement on Iran’s private nuclear programme, White House officials said.
Iran’s ballistic missile programme is not part of the current debate, despite some of the government officials pressing for it to be included first. Given how much progress has progressed at this point, the sources were not expecting to expand the topic under discussion. Witkov in early May suggested that topics other than nuclear files were “secondary” issues.
“We don’t want to confuse nuclear debates because it’s an existential issue for us,” he told Breitbart at the time.
Following the Rome consultations, the two countries have brought their latest proposals to their respective leaders, perhaps planning to meet again in the Middle East, and plan to meet soon.
The goal is to hit the overall deal at the next meeting between the two aspects that lay out specific markers for implementation, but also lead to follow-up discussions on technical details about the sources, as well as White House officials familiar with the ongoing discussion.
Witcoff and Michael Anton, directors of the State Department’s policy planning, have led all the consultations, along with the technical teams who have begun to resolve more specific details for the contract. However, there is a widespread expectation that technical teams will take over and become far more involved when a widespread agreement arises.
Despite Trump promoting expectations of “good news” for the near future, negotiations have been bumpy at times.
In the fourth round of negotiations, the US shared a proposal with Iran that outlines some of the key requirements the Trump administration is looking for in the deal. But at one point, Trump rejected an idea in discussion that appears to be supporting both negotiators, a source familiar with the issue said.
And while Trump predicted confidence that the deal would be on the horizon, he argued Wednesday that the situation could “change at any time – it could change on the phone.”