WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said Saturday that Iran has agreed to never develop nuclear weapons as part of any future deal.
In a Fox News interview Saturday night with his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, the president said Iran had accepted a core U.S. demand. “The one guarantee that I have to have is that there will be no nuclear weapons. They’ve agreed to that,” Trump said.
Iran has not publicly confirmed any such agreement.
The New York Times and Axios reported Saturday that Trump had transmitted a revised framework to Tehran with more stringent terms, though neither outlet specified the changes. The move could prolong negotiations that have stretched for weeks despite repeated signals from both sides that a deal was near.
Trump has said his top priorities are Iran’s permanent renunciation of nuclear weapons and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global oil shipments. Competing U.S. and Iranian blockades have kept the strait closed, choking supplies and raising energy prices.
Tehran has pushed back on several of Trump’s assertions. Iran has demanded the release of $12 billion in frozen assets before substantive nuclear talks can begin. Iranian media dismissed as “baseless” Trump’s claim that Iran’s enriched uranium would be destroyed.
Iran also insists that Lebanon must be included in any broader agreement to end the regional war. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday accused Israel of a “scorched-earth policy and collective punishment” as Israeli forces expanded operations in southern Lebanon.
Trump struck a less urgent tone in the interview, walking back earlier suggestions that a deal was imminent. “I’m in no hurry,” he said. “Slowly but surely we’re getting, I think, what we want and if we don’t get what we want, we’re going to end in a different way.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, speaking at a defense summit in Asia, echoed that posture, saying Washington was “more than capable” of restarting the war if necessary.
A temporary ceasefire between Tehran and Washington took hold in April following historic talks hosted by Pakistan. But armed conflict has continued in bursts. U.S. forces struck the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas earlier this week, drawing retaliatory fire from Iran. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also claimed to have shot down a U.S. military drone near Iranian territorial waters, a claim Washington has not confirmed.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Trump posted on social media that under any deal Iran would charge “no tolls” on ships passing through. But Iranian news agency Fars, citing sources, reported no such clause exists in the current agreement text. Separately, Iran’s ISNA news agency reported Saturday that a lawmaker said parliament would soon approve a plan enshrining Iranian management and sovereignty over the strait.
In Lebanon, the Israeli military confirmed Sunday it was expanding its ground offensive, with forces advancing past the Litani River into the Beaufort Ridge and Wadi al-Saluki area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israeli forces had pushed more than 30 kilometers into the country.
A truce between Israel and Hezbollah began April 17 but has never held. In early March, Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel following the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes, prompting near-daily Israeli air raids and a ground invasion. Israel and Lebanon began direct talks in April, with a fourth round expected in the coming week.
