Trump says Iran deal ‘very close’
President Trump told reporters a nuclear agreement with Iran is “very close,” saying Iran has agreed to hand over enriched-uranium stockpiles and that talks could involve releasing roughly $20 billion in frozen assets — comments he made while describing recent diplomacy and ceasefire moves (x.com). He also said he had prohibited Israel from launching strikes in Lebanon amid the ceasefire, framing the U.S. role as directly restraining Israeli military options (x.com).
President Donald Trump said on April 16 that the United States is “very close” to a deal with Iran and that Tehran has agreed to hand over its enriched-uranium stockpile. (reuters.com) Trump told reporters at the White House that talks were “very successful” and said a signing could happen in Pakistan after more negotiations in Islamabad. Axios reported on April 17 that one draft framework under discussion would pair Iran’s uranium transfer with access to about $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds. (reuters.com) (axios.com) Iran has not publicly confirmed Trump’s claim that it will surrender its stockpile, and Reuters reported on April 16 that negotiators had scaled back from a full peace accord to a temporary memorandum because disputes over enrichment and sanctions were still unresolved. (understandingwar.org) (reuters.com) The central issue is uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is below weapons grade but much closer to it than fuel for civilian reactors. Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on March 9 that almost half of Iran’s 60%-enriched uranium had been stored in a tunnel complex at Isfahan. (reuters.com) The agency said in a February 27 report that it no longer had access to Iran’s four declared enrichment facilities and could not verify the current size or location of Iran’s enriched-uranium stock. That makes any handover pledge hard to check without renewed inspections. (reuters.com) Trump linked the nuclear diplomacy to a wider effort to calm multiple fronts after weeks of war. On April 16 he announced a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, saying he had spoken with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (politico.com) (cnbc.com) On April 17, Trump said Israel was “prohibited” by the United States from bombing Lebanon any longer. Reuters reported that he also said any Iran deal was “not tied, in any way, to Lebanon,” even as the Lebanon ceasefire removed one obstacle in the broader regional talks. (reuters.com) (aljazeera.com) Israeli officials have described the Lebanon truce more narrowly than Trump did. Al Jazeera reported that the U.S. State Department said Israel would retain the right to strike in Lebanon in self-defense, while Netanyahu said Israeli forces would stay in an “extensive” security zone and wanted Hezbollah dismantled. (aljazeera.com) (cbc.ca) For now, Trump is presenting two claims at once: that Iran is close to giving up material the United Nations nuclear watchdog has not recently been able to inspect, and that Washington is directly limiting Israeli military action in Lebanon. The next test is whether negotiators produce a text that Iran, Israel, and outside inspectors all describe the same way. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2)
