President Donald Trump on Sunday urged his negotiating team not to rush into a deal with Iran to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, but appeared to slam critics of the deal.
President Trump’s comments on Truth Social are largely a continuation of the status quo from Saturday, when Trump said the deal with Iran was “almost negotiated.” President Trump said “time is on our side” toward an end to the nearly three-month-long conflict that has disrupted global energy markets and sent gasoline prices soaring in the United States.
“Negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner and I have told our delegates not to rush to a deal because time is on our side,” Trump said in a social media post. “Both sides have to take their time and get it right. There can be no mistakes!”
The president said the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports would continue “until an agreement is reached, certified and signed.”
According to MS Now, the deal being negotiated would open the Strait of Hormuz, end hostilities, unfreeze some Iranian assets and guarantee further negotiations to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that Iran “must understand, however, that it cannot develop or acquire nuclear weapons or bombs.”
The president has come under fire from some Republicans and allies over the rumored deal.
Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state during Trump’s first term, said the proposed deal would “require the Revolutionary Guards to build a weapons of mass destruction program and terrorize the world.”
“Not America First at all. It’s simple. Open the damn Straits. Deny access to Iranian funds. Unleash Iran’s full capabilities so it can’t threaten our regional allies,” Pompeo said in a post on X on Saturday.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Saturday that he is “deeply concerned about what we are hearing about the Iran ‘deal.’
“It would be a disastrous mistake if the result was that the Iranian regime, still run by Islamists who chant ‘Death to America,’ received billions of dollars so it could enrich uranium, develop nuclear weapons, and take effective control of the Strait of Hormuz,” Cruz said in a social media post.
President Trump appeared to address those concerns on Sunday, after his representatives went after his critics on social media the day before.
In another post, President Trump said, “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and good deal, not one like President Obama’s, which gave Iran tons of cash and a clear and open path to nuclear weapons.”
Former President Barack Obama’s administration signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015. This multilateral agreement restricted Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump and the Republican Party have long criticized the deal, and the president pulled the U.S. out of it during his first term.
“Our deal is the exact opposite, but no one has seen it, and no one knows what it is. It’s not even fully negotiated yet, so don’t listen to losers criticizing something they don’t know anything about,” Trump said. “Unlike people before me who should have solved this problem years ago, I don’t make bad deals!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a social media post on Sunday that he spoke with President Trump on Saturday night about “a memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and further negotiations towards a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.”
The Israeli leader said any deal with Iran must include limits on its nuclear capabilities, which Prime Minister Netanyahu said would mean “the removal of Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities and the removal of enriched nuclear material from Iranian territory.”
Trump also said he “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend Israel from threats on all fronts, including Lebanon.”
Israel’s attack on Lebanon has been a stalemate in past negotiations between the United States and Iran.
This story is developing. Please check back for the latest information.
