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Trump, Who Tore Up Iran Nuclear Deal, Calls for Iran Nuclear Deal

The president has some grand, delusional ambitions for the Middle East

Rolling Stone, By Ryan Bort, February 5, 2025

“I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens,’ ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED. I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed. God Bless the Middle East!”

The prospects for such a deal are slim given Trump’s zero-sum approach to foreign policy, not to mention how difficult it was to reach the initial agreement the president trashed in 2018. Trump signing a memorandum on Tuesday tightening sanctions against Iran didn’t seem to help. “The maximum pressure [policy] is a failed experience, and trying it again will lead to another failure,” Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in response according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Trump’s recent Middle East wishcasting includes not only Iran capitulating to his demands, but the U.S. somehow taking ownership of the Gaza Strip, ridding it of Palestinians, and developing it into, as he put it Tuesday evening, the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We’ll do a job with it, too. We’ll own it.”……… Subscribers only – more https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-iran-nuclear-deal-sanctions-1235257693/y

February 7, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Iran, politics international