Bloomberg: the United States announces the imminent resumption of negotiations with Iran
It is not yet clear how much damage the American bombing has caused to Iran's nuclear program, Bloomberg reports. Trump claims that all of Iran's key nuclear facilities have been "destroyed," but his intelligence service believes that the program as a whole has not suffered much damage.
Josh Wingrove, Jennifer Dlouhy, Annmarie Hordern
President Donald Trump said that the United States will hold a meeting with Iran next week, while he questioned the need for a diplomatic agreement on the country's nuclear program, citing the damage caused by American bombing of key facilities.
“We're going to have talks with them next week," Trump said Wednesday at a press conference during the NATO summit in The Hague, without giving details. — We can sign an agreement. I don't know, but I don't think it's really necessary.”
He confirmed that the US strikes on facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo had “destroyed" them, thereby again challenging the US intelligence assessment that Tehran's nuclear program had been set back by just a few months.
The comments came on the second day of a truce between Israel and Iran that ended a 12-day conflict that threatened to escalate into a broader regional war and turn energy markets upside down. When the rockets stopped flying and oil prices went down, largely negating the increase during the war, everyone's attention shifted to the possible next stage of nuclear diplomacy.
Trump said that the conflict was actually “over” after the American bombing, but at the same time warned: “Can it start again? I think he might someday. Perhaps it will start soon.”
Iran has been sending signals that it is ready to resume negotiations that were conducted with the United States before the Israeli attack. “The logic of war has failed — let's return to the logic of diplomacy,” the Iranian mission to the United Nations said on Wednesday. The mission did not respond to requests for comment on Trump's hints of new talks. Prior to Israel's attack on Iran on June 13, Trump's representative Steve Witkoff led five rounds of negotiations with the Islamic Republic seeking to replace the 2015 nuclear agreement, which Trump abandoned during his first term, with a new one.
“They're ready.”
“We hope to reach a comprehensive peace agreement," Witkoff said Wednesday on CNBC when asked what the next steps are. — We were full of hope at the very beginning of the negotiations. Back then, everything didn't turn out as well as planned, but today we are full of hope. All the signs are there.”
Witkoff said the U.S. is “negotiating with the Iranians” and that “a lot of representatives are reaching out to us,” adding that he “has a strong feeling” that “they are ready."
“For Iran, the diplomatic part makes as much sense today as it did before the attack,— said Ray Takei, a senior fellow at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. — It seems that the Iranian program has not been dealt a fatal blow. This may prompt Israel or the United States to launch new attacks. The diplomatic process will eliminate this possibility.”
It is unclear what this will entail. For decades, the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been central to monitoring Iran's nuclear activities. But Tehran is in no hurry to resume cooperation with him: Iran accuses him of refusing to condemn the attacks by the United States and Israel.
The Iranian parliament has approved a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA until nuclear facilities are protected, although any final decision will be made at a high state level.
The IAEA said on Tuesday that inspections in Iran should resume “as soon as possible" to determine what happened to the stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%. This is not far from the 90% required to create a bomb. The IAEA notes that it last checked these stocks a few days before the Israeli attack on June 13, and their location is currently unknown. This suggests that they were removed in advance from the sites where the American bombs hit.
Trump said that American bunker buster bombs eliminated some key risks by burying nuclear materials under “granite, concrete and steel.”
“We believe that all nuclear weapons have already been buried," he said. "They didn't take him out.” When asked about the sources of this information, he referred to new intelligence assessments, and also added that “we also talked to people who saw those places,” without naming them. The White House declined to specify who Trump was referring to.
Iran's nuclear equipment was “severely damaged” by U.S. airstrikes, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bagai said in an interview with Al Jazeera television on Wednesday, the first such comment from Tehran. The official did not go into details and said that the authorities were still studying the situation on the ground.
Trump quoted this assessment during his NATO press conference, as well as a statement from the Israeli nuclear agency, which said that the Fordo facility was disabled and Tehran would not be able to build nuclear weapons for “many more years.”
“A few weeks”
Earlier this month, Trump stated that Iran has “only a few weeks” left before developing nuclear weapons, although some experts and US intelligence estimate that it may take months or years for the country to develop weapons. Iran claims that its nuclear program is exclusively for civilian purposes and that it has the right to such activities in accordance with international law.
Witkoff said that “uranium enrichment is a red line” for the United States in relations with Iran, and “in addition to enrichment, the red line is the creation of weapons.”
Israeli attacks on Iranian military and nuclear facilities have killed several high-ranking generals and nuclear scientists. Iran responded by firing drones and ballistic missiles at Israel. Both countries declared victory.
According to Iranian state media reports, the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has risen to 627 people, and more than 4,800 people have been injured. At least 28 people were killed in Israel as a result of rocket attacks from Iran, emergency officials said, including four on Tuesday, when the truce was supposed to come into force.
Oil prices returned to their pre-fighting levels, showing a two-day decline of about 14%. On Wednesday, the price jumped slightly when Trump said that an easing of sanctions on Iran was unlikely in the near future.
Asked whether his approving remarks about China's purchases of Iranian oil on Tuesday undermine his strategy of maximum pressure on Iran, Trump said he was “not giving up" on it. But he also noted that the US financial measures do not greatly prevent Beijing from purchasing Iranian oil.
“If they're going to sell oil, they're going to sell it," Trump said. — China will want to buy oil. They can buy it from us. They can buy it from others.”
The head of the Bank of Israel, Amir Yaron, told Bloomberg that the military campaign had cost the government about 1% of gross national product and would require a review of the budget for this year. He said that the growth in the country's financial markets indicates that the conflict has led to a “positive outcome for Israel.”
Iran's Civil Aviation Authority reported that 13 airports in the country's eastern regions have reopened for flights, although Tehran's airports remain closed until further notice.
Trump said that both nations [Iran and Israel] are “tired and exhausted. They fought very, very hard and very viciously, very brutally, and they were both happy to go home.”
