President Donald Trump on Sunday urged his negotiating team not to rush a deal with Iran to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, while appearing to slam critics of the brewing deal.
Trump’s comments on Truth Social are largely a continuation of the status quo from Saturday, when Trump said that a deal with Iran was “largely negotiated.” Trump said that “time is on our side” in the push to end the nearly three-month-old conflict that has whipsawed global energy markets and spiked gasoline prices in the U.S.
“The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” Trump said in the social media post. “Both sides must take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!”
The president said the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in effect until “an agreement is reached, certified, and signed.”
According to MS Now, the deal being negotiated would open the Strait of Hormuz, end the hostilities, unfreeze certain Iranian assets and guarantee further negotiations to curb Tehran’s nuclear program.
Trump said in the Truth Social post that Iran “must understand, however, that they cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb.”
The president has been catching flak from some Republicans and allies over a rumored deal.
Mike Pompeo, who served as Secretary of State in Trump’s first term, said the deal being floated would “[p]ay the IRGC to build a WMD program and terrorize the world.”
“Not remotely America First. It’s straightforward: Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region,” Pompeo said in a post to X on Saturday.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Saturday said he was “deeply concerned about what we are hearing about an Iran ‘deal.'”
“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime—still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’—now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” Cruz said in a social media post.
Trump appeared to address those concerns on Sunday, after his surrogates went after critics on social media a day earlier.
Trump said in another post that, “[I]f I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one, not like the one made by Obama, which gave Iran massive amounts of CASH, and a clear and open path to a Nuclear Weapon.”
Former President Barack Obama’s administration signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, in 2015. The multilateral deal constrained the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump and Republicans have long panned that deal, and the president withdrew the U.S. from it during his first term.
“Our deal is the exact opposite, but nobody has seen it, or knows what it is. It isn’t even fully negotiated yet. So don’t listen to the losers, who are critical about something they know nothing about,” Trump said. “Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media post on Sunday that he spoke to Trump on Saturday night about the “memorandum of understanding to reopen the Straits of Hormuz and the upcoming negotiations toward a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.”
The Israeli leader said that any deal with Iran must include limiting its nuclear capabilities, which Netanyahu said means “dismantling Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites and removing its enriched nuclear material from its territory.”
He also said that Trump “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against threats on every front, including Lebanon.”
Israeli strikes in Lebanon have been a sticking point in past negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.